European Integration And National Adaptations

European Integration & National Adaptations A Theoretical Inquiry

Adapting to European Integration describes how the political institutions in eight small member states and two non-members responded to the internal and external demands springing from the process of European integration in general and EC/EU membership in particular. The study makes a distinction between governmental/administrative adaptation, political adaptation and strategic adaptation. The chapters focus, in the first instance, on the governmental/administrative responses at the level of central government, the organisational adjustments and the changes in institutional capacity to meet the new challenges. The authors also look at the willingness of the political decision-makers to internalise the EC/EU dimension in domestic policy making and the way in which the country's own history as well as the attitude towards European integration facilitate or hinder adaptation and change.

The European Union will be a much more diversified entity after the forthcoming eastward enlargement. The applicant states from Eastern Europe are much poorer than the current member states from Western Europe. Their democracy and in some cases even their statehood is newly established and presumably more fragile. Their economic, legal and administrative structures are less developed. This collection of essays will try to examine the origin, nature, scale and implications of this divergence. How much divergence is likely to be imported by the Union and will it hamper the process of European integration? This volume looks at differences and similarities in the field of macro-economics, welfare systems, democracy, institutional infrastructure, civic orientations and popular culture. The book shows that the map of convergence and divergence in the future EU will be very complex and will not correspond exactly with the old east-west divide. Moreover, the division lines are constantly changing with the enlargement process representing an important factor pushing individual states into a single regulatory frame, if not in a common political direction. However, there are other "unifying" factors at play: globalization produces different models and loyalties than Europeanization. Moreover, the European pulling effect works unevenly in different functional fields and in different countries. There are also many factors that produce greater divergence rather than convergence across the European Union; a certain degree of divergence is thus unavoidable. The book shows, in particular, that certain types of divergence can be beneficial rather than merely detrimental in the process of Europeanintegration.

With a focus on governmental institutions, this book explores the ways in which EU membership has altered the balance of power among key political actors. The authors discuss cultural adaptation to integration, as well as examining the views of the elite and voters. The transformation in national identity, sovereignty and neutrality are also examined.

This book examines the evolving relationship between the nation-state, citizenship and the education of citizens, exploring the impact European integration had on national policies towards educating its citizens and citizenship.

This comparative examination of the impact of European integration on the politics and government of EU member states covers the parties, the legal system, voters and public administration.

This is an assessment of how an established, federal constitutional framework can adapt to meet the challenge posed by the achievement of German unity and the deepening of european Unity.