How should political community be seen in the context of European integration? This book combines a theoretical treatment of political allegiance with a study of ordinary citizens, examining how taxi-drivers in Britain, Germany and the Czech Republic talk politics and situate themselves relative to political institutions and other citizens.

The debate over European integration is a central issue in the study of contemporary Europe. This book seeks to guide the student through the most important of the integration theories and academic literature on this vital topic. The reader starts with an expansive and wide ranging introductory essay which offers a clear overview and analysis of the shifting terms of the debate on European integration during the post-war period. Part two provides key extracts from the seminal authors who have contributed to and fashioned this debate throughout its duration. It brings together the most important parts from the most essential and influential literature on this important topic. This reader will be of value to the growing number of students, at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, who are undertaking courses in European studies and European politics. It will be especially useful to those who require some knowledge of the origins and developments of this important issue at the centre of the debate over Europe.

Prominent in the EU's recent transformations has been the tendency to advance extraordinary measures in the name of crisis response. From emergency lending to macro-economics, border management to Brexit, policies are pursued unconventionally and as measures of last resort. This book investigates the nature, rise, and implications of this politics of emergency as it appears in the transnational setting. As the author argues, recourse to this method of rule is an expression of the deeper weakness of executive power in today's Europe. It is how policy-makers contend with rising socio-economic power and diminishing representative ties, seeking fall-back authority in the management of crises. In the structure of the EU they find incentives and few impediments. Whereas political exceptionalism tends to be associated with sovereign power, here it is power's diffusion and functional disaggregation that spurs politics in the emergency mode. The effect of these governing patterns is not just to challenge and reshape ideas of EU legitimacy rooted in constitutionalism and technocracy. The politics of emergency fosters a counter-politics in its mirror image, as populists and others play with themes of necessity and claim the right to disobedience in extremis. The book examines the prospects for democracy once the politics of emergency takes hold, and what it might mean to put transnational politics on a different footing.

In this fresh and timely account, Michael Calingaert explores the successes and failures of European economic and political integration, analyzes the factors that will determine its future course, and outlines the directions the European Union is moving in as it approaches the 21st century. Assessing U.S. interests affected by European integration, Calingaert recommends policies for the United States to consider in the face of an increasingly consolidated Europe. With its broad coverage and readable synthesis of a wealth of detailed information, this book will be of interest to students, scholars, and policymakers alike.

With growing levels of Euroscepticism across EU member states, grasping the roots of opposition to European integration has become more important than ever. This book charts public perceptions of the European Union in both the EU-15 and the new member states and introduces an identity-based model to explain mass Euroscepticism.

Pre-financial crisis, EU citizens were 'overlooking' Europe ignoring it in favour of globalisation, economic flows, and crises of political corruption. Innovative focus group methods allow an analysis of citizens' reactions, and demonstrate how euroscepticism is a red herring, instead articulating an indifference to and ambivalence about Europe.

Now in a fully revised and updated edition, this book remains the standard for concise histories of the European Union. Mark Gilbert offers a clear and balanced narrative of European integration since its inception to the present, set in the wider history of the post-war period. Gilbert concludes by considering the Union’s future in light of the mood of crisis that has taken hold in the EU in the aftermath of the global recession, the refugee crisis, and Brexit. Listen to a New Books Network interview with the author at https://newbooksnetwork.com/hosts/profile/4c7e90cb-b33e-4121-99fb-9813f2889437.