Suchergebnisse

Bromley ponders EU (European Union) nations' roles, the group's groundbreaking international cooperation, its division of political authority, & the nature of that authority's execution. Also examined are EU members' transformation through integration, the nature of the adaptive political form, & that form's possible relation to member states' politics. The demise of European imperialism is chronicled from the late 19th century through WWII. Shifts in power & alliance are evidenced by documentation of the General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade, the International Monetary Fund, & the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Discussion of the EU's implementation & governance includes the 1951 treaty establishing the European Coal & Steel Communities & the 1957 Treaties of Rome. The EU's most significant supranational aspects are explored. The complexities & possibilities arising from EU member states' deference to the group's supranational status are elucidated. Descriptive instances of conflict resolution are included, & the role of international legislative organizations is discussed. 11 References. M. C. Leary

Impact internationally of a fragmented Soviet Union, particularly during the transition period.

We seek to shape an agenda for the growing interest in using sociological approaches to study the European Union (EU). In order to deepen and broaden the Europeanization agenda, the article points to how sociology can help reveal the 'social bases' of European integration (i.e. processes of European Union), as well as identify effects on European society that might reconnect EU studies with key comparative political economy debates about the European 'varieties of capitalism' and its models of economy and society. Unfortunately, however, 'sociological' approaches towards the EU have mostly been wrongly equated with the 'constructivist turn' in EU studies, and its characteristic preference for 'soft' qualitative discursive methods and meta-theory. We argue that, rather than turning to culture, identity or social theory for inspiration, an empirical sociological approach to the EU would reintroduce social structural questions of class, inequality, networks and mobility, as well as link up with existing approaches to public opinion, mobilization and claims-making in the political sociology of the EU. To conclude, the article identifies some exemplary studies along these lines.

The European Union is at a crossroads. This book analyzes the historical roots of the EU's monetary and financial institutions in order to better understand its struggle to maintain an economic and monetary union, as well as the ongoing problems facing the Euro. The institutions of the EU are based on the operation of free markets, a common monetary policy, and the European Central Bank. These founding policies have created many of the imbalances at the root of the ongoing European recession. Reemerging threats of populism and localism are poised to further disintegrate the European construction and may spark fierce opposition between countries. Acocella engages with these risks, suggesting detailed actions for reform within the EU and its institutions that may steer it away from further conflict, allowing it to better serve its member states and citizens.

Preface by Altiero Spinelli. Published in cooperation with the European Policy Unit, European University Institute, Florence. ; The Draft Treaty establishing the European Union is the most ambitious effort so far to achieve sweeping institutional reform in the European Communities, and the clearest proof of the new independence of the directly elected European Parliament. Apart from its immediate political significance, it has re-opened the debate on institutional and substantive reform of the European Communities at both the governmental and the public levels. This book offers a comprehensive political, economic and legal analysis of the Draft Treaty, and a realistic assessment of the political and constitutional hurdles it faces in the Member States. The usefulness of this book, however, is not limited to its analysis of the Draft Treaty itself. The papers collected in this volume incisively examine the state of the current Communities in many of their aspects, and the observations and recommendations made by the authors bear careful reflection by all those engaged in the ongoing discussion of the fate of the European Communities. The first part of this book includes studies of Community reform on the institutional, judicial, economic and foreign relations dimensions seen through the perspective of the Draft Treaty. The second part deals with the constitutional and political problems of trying to amend or replace the Treaty of Rome. This issue includes the legal status of the procedure established for ratification and the position of the Draft Treaty in the Member States.