Foundations Of Democracy In The European Union

This book offers a new approach to the study of European democracy showing how this has developed through key episodes in the long history of the process: precursors in the Low Countries; the founding of British parliamentary then American federal democracy; post-revolutionary France; post-war Germany; the European Parliament. It examines the significance of each episode in the development of national or federal democracy and concludes with a positive assessment of the prospects of liberal democracy. This is an important book for political scientists, historians and others concerned with the development of democracy in Europe and beyond.

Foundations of European Politics: A Comparative Approach offers an accessible introduction to European politics using a coherent comparative and analytical framework. It presents students with the basic theoretical and empirical toolkit of social scientific researchers, and explains how ananalytic approach can be used to understand both domestic and EU-level policy-making in Europe.The book draws on cutting edge research from all areas of European politics - from national and EU institutions, to political behaviour and policy-making - and uses case studies and examples throughout to help students compare different electoral systems, parties and governments across Europe.The book is structured thematically in five parts, beginning with theoretical foundations; moving on to examine citizens and voters, elections and parties, governments and policy; and finally covering the rule of law, democracy and backsliding.Digital formats and resourcesFoundations of European Politics: A Comparative Approach is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats, and is supported by online resources.DT The e-book offers a mobile experience and convenient access along with functionality tools, navigation features and links that offer extra learning support: www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooks http://www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooksDT Online resources for students include: multiple choice questions, web links, essay questions, and data descriptions and data exercises.DT Online resources for lecturers include: adaptable PowerPoint slides, test bank questions, figures and tables from the book.

The Making of the European Union argues that the process of European integration has drifted into serious crisis, perhaps the most serious since the Danes voted against the Treaty of the European Union in 1992. Analysing the conditions for European integration, this book applies a citizens' or 'bottom-up' perspective on the integration process. The difficulties that the constitutional process has encountered illustrate the relevance of bringing public opinion into the analysis of the prospects for European integration. The book describes and analyses the historical, mental, intellectual , and attitudinal denominators of European integration, denominators that have shaped the processes so far and will continue to do so in the future. The authors apply a broad comparative perspective, where European nation-states constitute the primary units of analysis. The focus is on the foundations of European integration, public views about the EU, including various shades of Euroscepticism, and the long-term prospects of the EU. This book will appeal to a wide audience including scholars and researchers in the social sciences - particularly political science, comparative politics and European studies. The book will also be of great interest to journalists and all those involved in the EU, including policy makers and civil servants throughout the EU itself.

This volume brings together legal philosophers, political philosophers, and EU legal academics in the service of developing the philosophical analysis of EU law. In a series of original and complementary essays they bring their varied disciplinary expertise and theoretical perspectives to bear on central issues facing the Union and its law.

This book assesses European Union policies aimed at encouraging democratization in East Asia and the North African and Middle Eastern States within the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership - these two regions being the source of some of the strongest conceptual challenges to 'Western' liberal democracy since the end of the cold war. The book addresses theoretical debates over the international dimensions of political change and the EU's characteristics as an international actor. The factors both driving and inhibiting European democracy promotion policies are explored. The book outlines the EU's distinctive bottom-up philosophy, aimed at constructing the socio-economic and ideational foundations for political liberalization, but argues that the EU has in practice failed to develop a fully comprehensive and coherent democracy promotion strategy.

The widening and deepening of the European Union have brought to the fore the question of democracy at the European level. The system of domination already in place at the European level requires and aspires to direct legitimation - from the citizens themselves and not merely indirect, derived from the Member Nation States. Such can only be achieved by making the EU into a democratic polity. But can democracy be disassociated from its putative nation-state foundation? A revised concept of democratic legitimacy based on discourse theory is developed. It is argued that post-national democracy requires a constitution but not necessarily a state. The Union amounts to less than a state but more than an international organisation and a system of transnational governance. In the political theory of the multilevel constellation that makes up the EU, it is conceived of as a regional subset of an emerging cosmopolitan order. The EU is a state-less government. As it is not premised on group identity, it is able to accommodate a high measure of variance with regard to territory and function. The book analyzes the reforms undertaken to bring the EU 'closer to the citizens'. It documents elements of democratization and reduction of arbitrary power. However, democracy requires that the citizens can approve or reject the laws they are subjected to. Since the institutional as well as the civic conditions under which a public justification process would be deemed legitimate are not in place, European post-national democracy remains an unaccomplished mission.

The study makes an analysis of the legal framework which Member States must take into account when designing their policies on citizenship education. The Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education of the Council of Europe and the international right to education are read in conjunction with EU law. Suitable content for the EU dimension in mainstream education is explored. A method for objective, critical and pluralistic EU learning is proposed, based on the Treaties and on case teaching (stories for critical thinking). Member States are invited to take more action to ensure quality education. The EU has the legal competence to support the EU dimension in education. In the present state of EU law, quality education is no longer conceivable without an EU dimension incorporated in various key competences. At present the author works at the implementation of the ideas developed in the book as an Affiliated Senior Researcher at Leuven University (Case4EU-project in Belgium and other EU Member States).