McCormick John - The European Union : politics and policies

THE EUROPEAN UNION

First published 2017 by Westview Press

Published 2018 by Routledge

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Olsen, Jonathan, 1959- author. | McCormick, John, 1954- author.

Title: The European Union : politics and policies / Jonathan Olsen, John McCormick.

Description: Sixth edition. | Boulder, CO : Westview Press, 2016. | Previous editions entered under: McCormick, John, 1954- | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016025090 (print) | LCCN 2016028670 (ebook) | ISBN 9780813349848 (paperback) | ISBN 9780813350349 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: European Union. | BISAC: POLITICAL SCIENCE / International Relations / General. | HISTORY / Europe / General.

Classification: LCC JN30 .M37 2016 (print) | LCC JN30 (ebook) | DDC 341.242/2--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016025090

ISBN 13: 978-0-8133-4984-8 (pbk)

Designed by Jack Lenzo

Although the crisis that broke in the eurozone in 2009 has given policy makers many sleepless nights, it also has had the effect of drawing wider public attention to an entity about which many Americans knew little: the European Union (EU). Since the early 1950s, Europeans have been working to remove the political, economic, and social barriers that have long divided them, and the result has been the development of the worlds newest superpower, the worlds wealthiest marketplace and trading power, and the possible precursor to a United States of Europe.

Worries about the stability of the eurozone and Greece have combined with the Brexit and an alarming refugee crisis to raise some deeply troubling questions about the EUs capacity for decisive action, but it still remains a powerful actor in the worldone that is important for Americans to understand: the EU is one of our biggest trading partners, it is our most influential and dependable ally in an uncertain world, and its emergence has been one of the defining events of the modern era, helping reorder the international system and bringing to Europe the longest spell of general peace that it has seen in centuries. The achievements of the EU in this last regard were recognized in 2012 when it was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. The EU has helped promote democracy and economic development throughout Europe; it has helped more than half a billion Europeans overcome their political, economic, and social divisions; and it stands as a prime example of how peaceful means can bring lasting change.

But in spite of all this, it remainsfor most peoplea mystery and an enigma. Few Americans know much about it beyond the euro, and even Europeans are perplexed: most support the idea of Europe in principle but also admit that they know little about how the EU works, who makes the decisions, or how the EU has changed their lives. Enthusiasm for the EU is harder to find than ambivalence, indifference, or outright hostility. There are several reasons for the confusion:

• The EU is unique. There has never been anything quite like it before, and it fits few of our usual ideas about politics and government. Is it an international organization, a new European superstate, or something in between? How much authority does it have relative to its member states? How do its powers and structure differ from those of a conventional national government?

• It is not always well explained. Publishing on the EU has been a growth industry in the last decade, but much of it is bogged down in a morass of treaty articles and arcane jargon and sidetracked by inconclusive debates over theory. The EU is one of todays most important and dramatic political and economic developments, full of fascinating characters and driven by conflicts, conspiracies, successes, crises, and failures, and yet much of the scholarly writing about the EU makes it sound dull, technocratic, and legalistic.

• The EU keeps changing. Just when we think we have begun to understand it, a new treaty comes along that gives it new powers, or its leaders agree to a new set of goals that give it a different character and appearance, or new member states join, changing its personality and its structure, or new crises arise, demanding new action. Change is, of course, a core feature of politics and government everywhere, but the European target tends to move more quickly than most, with no certainty about where exactly it is headed.

Having taught courses on the EU for many years, and having worked with instructors teaching similar courses at other colleges and universities, we are familiar with the challenge of explaining the EU. As the power and influence of Europe grows, so does the importance of clear guidance through the complexities of the EU, and detailed analysis that offers observers the context they need to better appreciate the implications of European integration. It was concerns such as these that prompted the writing of this book, which sets out to help answer four fundamental questions:

• What is the EU?

• How did it evolve?

• What does it do?

• What difference does it make?

The first edition was written in 19931995, when the European Union was still adapting to the near completion of the single market, struggling with preparations for the single currency, and mired in the fallout from the serial foreign policy embarrassments of the Gulf War and the Balkan conflicts. There was relatively little public or political interest in the EU at the time; there were few textbooks that provided an introduction to the EU and none written specifically for American students. Since thenreflecting the new levels of interest in the EUmany more textbooks have been written about the EU, but this sixth edition of The European Union: Politics and Policies retains its core goals of informing mainly American students, explaining how the EU functions from first principles, and explaining how and why the EU matters for those of us on this side of the Atlantic. It is also unusual because it is written more from the perspective of comparative politics and public policy than that of international relations; scholars from the latter subdiscipline have tended to dominate the research and writing on the EU for several decades.

In the last edition of this book Jonathan Olsen joined John McCormick as coauthor. As with previous editions, in this new sixth edition we have tried to keep the presentation simple enough for the introductory student (who most often is exposed to the EU in a one-semester course on European politics and the EU) yet detailed enough to provide a comprehensive overview of the EUs history, institutions, and policies. Every chapter begins with a bulleted overview and ends with questions for discussion, along with a list of recommended readings that provides the most recent, readable, and enlightening Anglo-American sources. The book ends with a glossary of key terms, a chronology of events, and recommended sources of further information. The EU changes so much and so rapidly that texts on it date quickly, so this new editionwhile keeping the same basic structure as its predecessorshas been significantly overhauled and updated: