Germany Europe And The Politics Of Constraint

The process of European integration is marked both by continued deepening and widening, and by growing evidence of domestic disquiet and dissent. Against this background, this volume examines three key themes: the challenge to the power of member states - as subjects of European integration - to determine the course of the integrationist project and to shape European public policies; the increasing constraints in the domestic political arena experienced by member states as objects of European integration; and the contestation over both the 'constitutive politics of the EU' and specific policy choices. These three themes - power, constraint and contestation - and their interdependence are explored with specific reference to contemporary Germany. The main findings call for a revision of the 'conventional wisdom' about Germany's Europeanization experience. First, while Germany continues to engage intensively in all aspects of the integration process, its power to 'upload' - 'hard' and 'soft', 'deliberate' or 'unintentional', 'institutional' or 'ideational' - appears in decline. Germany's capacity to 'shape its regional milieu' is challenged by both changes in the integration process and the ever more apparent weaknesses of the 'German model'. The traditional regional core milieu is shrinking in size and importance in an enlarging Europe, and Germany's milieu-shaping power is being challenged. Second, the coincidence of enabling and constraining effects is being progressively replaced by a discourse that notes unwelcome constrictions associated with EU membership. The book's findings suggest that key political institutions and processes in the Federal Republic have not co-evolved with the integration process, but lead an, at times, uncomfortable co-existence. Third, domestic contestation over both everyday EU policy and the constitutional politics of integration seems set to increase. There are, as yet, no indications that these domestic conflicts will reach an intensity comparable to that of the 1950s. However, both the 'permissive' mass consensus and, perhaps more importantly, élite consensus are being tested to their limits. This volume is essential reading for students of comparative European politics and German studies.

Richardson introduces the policy-making processes at work in the EU. This edition has been significantly improved to make it even more accessible for second and third year undergraduates. A website will also support this edition, featuring some of the more technical material such as statistics.

Integrating insights from foreign policy analysis, integration theory, and social theory and providing an in-depth analysis of both refugee and security policy, the book develops an innovative framework for analysis that is capable of accounting for an incremental 'de-Europeanization' in Germany's EU policy.

This study assesses the influence of German policy makers on EU policy and the impact of EU membership on foreign policy making at the national level. The book concludes that limitations remain on the Europeanization of German foreign and security policy and Germany's ability to play a leading role in military crisis management.

This new volume situates current debates about economic reform in Germany in illuminating historical and structural contexts. Showing how economic reform has become the central issue on the German political agenda, raising contentious issues of policy management and posing deeper questions about political beliefs and identities. It also examines the politics of the reform process, outlining competing views about the root causes of Germany’s economic problems, the appropriate policy responses, and the distribution of costs. It situates the reform process in the wider context of the decline of the German economic model (Modell Deutschland) and Germany’s transition from European ‘pace-setter’ to economic ‘laggard’. Particular attention is paid to the following key questions: What continuities and discontinuities can be seen in Germany's political economy? Are globalization and Europeanization associated with a progressive neo-liberal ascendancy in economic reform? How does economic reform in Germany compare with that in other states, notably Britain and France? Are there distinctive patterns in the way domestic policymakers negotiate economic reform? How do the characteristics of the German labour market and welfare state condition economic reform? How much variation exists at the Laender levels? This book was previously published as a special issue of German Politics.

This book examines fiscal policy coordination in EMU and the required adjustments to national fiscal policies by EMU member states. The book shows that, in the process of Europeanization, national interests have had a major impact on the formation of fiscal policy coordination.

This study argues that 'strategic culture' provides only a partial explanation of of German military reform after the Cold War era. It demonstrates how domestic material factors were of crucial importance in shaping the pace and outcome of reform, despite the impact of 'international structure' and pressure from the EU and NATO.

This book offers a novel contribution to the study of post-Cold War European defence. Interdisciplinary in approach, it uses European law to assess the utility of existing theoretical accounts. By exploring the balance of threat theory, it provides new insights into the forces driving and hindering European defence cooperation.