
Democracy in Europe
The EU and National Polities
Vivien A. Schmidt(Author)
Oxford University Press
Published on 19. October 2006
Book
Hardback
328 pages
978-0-19-926697-5 (ISBN)
Description
Democracy in Europe is about the impact of European integration on national democracies. It argues that the oft-cited democratic deficit is indeed a problem, but not so much at the level of the European Union per se as at the national level. This is because national leaders and publics have yet to come to terms with the institutional impact of the EU on the traditional workings of their national democracies.
The book begins with a discussion of what the EU is-a new form of 'regional state' in which sovereignty is shared, boundaries are variable, identity composite, and democracy fragmented. It then goes on to examine the effects of this on EU member-states' institutions and ideas about democracy, finding that institutional 'fit' matters. The 'compound' EU, in which governing activity is highly dispersed among multiple authorities, is more disruptive to 'simple' polities like Britain and France, where governing activity has traditionally been more concentrated in a single authority, than to similarly 'compound' polities like Germany and Italy. But the book concludes that the real problem for member-states is not so much that their practices have changed as that national ideas and discourse about democracy have not. The failure has been one of the 'communicative' discourse to the general public-which again has been more pronounced for simple polities, despite their potentially greater capacity to communicate through a single voice, than for compound polities, where the 'coordinative' discourse among policy actors predominates.
The book begins with a discussion of what the EU is-a new form of 'regional state' in which sovereignty is shared, boundaries are variable, identity composite, and democracy fragmented. It then goes on to examine the effects of this on EU member-states' institutions and ideas about democracy, finding that institutional 'fit' matters. The 'compound' EU, in which governing activity is highly dispersed among multiple authorities, is more disruptive to 'simple' polities like Britain and France, where governing activity has traditionally been more concentrated in a single authority, than to similarly 'compound' polities like Germany and Italy. But the book concludes that the real problem for member-states is not so much that their practices have changed as that national ideas and discourse about democracy have not. The failure has been one of the 'communicative' discourse to the general public-which again has been more pronounced for simple polities, despite their potentially greater capacity to communicate through a single voice, than for compound polities, where the 'coordinative' discourse among policy actors predominates.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
Numerous tables and figures
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
669 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-926697-5 (9780199266975)
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Other editions
Additional editions

Book
10/2006
Oxford University Press
€72.60
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Vivien A. Schmidt is Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration and Professor of International Relations at Boston University.
Author
, Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration and Professor of International Relations, Boston University
Content
Introduction: Democracy in Europe ; 1. The European Union as Regional State ; 2. The European Union and National Institutions ; 3. The European Union and National Policymaking ; 4. The European Union and National Polities ; 5. Theorizing Democracy in Europe ; Conclusion: The Prospects for Democracy in Europe ; References ; Index