The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg are well-known cases of consensus politics. Decision-making in the Low Countries has been characterized by broad involvement, power sharing and making compromises. These countries were also founding member states of the European Union (EU) and its predecessors. However, the relationship between European integration and the tradition of domestic consensus politics remains unclear. In order to explore this relationship this book offers in-depth studies of a wide variety of political actors such as governments, parliaments, political parties, courts, ministries and interest groups as well as key policy issues such as the ratification of EU treaties and migration policy. The authors focus not only on Europeanization, but also analyse whether European integration may gradually undermine the fundamental characteristics of consensus politics in the Low Countries. Drawing on consociationalism and Europeanization research, this volume provides a comprehensive overview of Europeanization in these three EU member states as well as a better understanding of the varieties of consensus politics across and within these countries. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of European studies, European integration, European law, political science, European political economy and comparative politics.

The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg are well-known cases of consensus politics. Decision-making in the Low Countries has been characterized by broad involvement, power sharing and making compromises. These countries were also founding member states of the European Union (EU) and its predecessors. However, the relationship between European integration and the tradition of domestic consensus politics remains unclear. In order to explore this relationship this book offers in-depth studies of a wide variety of political actors such as governments, parliaments, political parties, courts, ministries and interest groups as well as key policy issues such as the ratification of EU treaties and migration policy. The authors focus not only on Europeanization, but also analyse whether European integration may gradually undermine the fundamental characteristics of consensus politics in the Low Countries. Drawing on consociationalism and Europeanization research, this volume provides a comprehensive overview of Europeanization in these three EU member states as well as a better understanding of the varieties of consensus politics across and within these countries. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of European studies, European integration, European law, political science, European political economy and comparative politics.

European Integration outlines in empirical detail the mysteries and paradoxes of European integration. It challenges the convention of studying individual aspects of EU policymaking in isolation from the wider whole and situates the EU within the broader conceptual universe of the changing nature of the state in Europe.

The new fifth edition of this leading textbook provides a clear and comprehensive account of governance and politics in the Netherlands. The book has been revised throughout to provide full coverage of recent developments and events, including the latest proposals for constitutional reform. The Netherlands has often been characterized as a place of political calm, with a culture of cooperation and compromise in dealing with key political issues. Now, at a time when climate change and immigration are high on the political agenda, the electorate is growing ever more unpredictable and political fragmentation makes forming majority coalitions increasingly difficult, it is vital to question how the Dutch system will continue to achieve consensus. With this in mind, the authors take a comparative and analytical approach as they examine the features of the country's political system that have long made it a subject of study for political scientists. Governance and Politics of the Netherlands provides both students and scholars with a complete and reliable introduction to a country whose small size belies its importance in comparative political analysis. New to this Edition: - Fully revised and updated throughout to reflect the latest developments, events and issues. - Cites the most recent data sources (e.g. national election study and parliamentary study). - Discusses latest proposals for constitutional reform.

The University of Notre Dame Press is pleased to bring Ernst Haas's classic work on European integration, The Uniting of Europe, back into print. First published in 1958 and last printed in 1968, this seminal volume is the starting point for anyone interested in the pre-history of the European Union. Haas uses the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) as a case study of the community formation processes that occur across traditional national and state boundaries. Haas points to the ECSC as an example of an organization with the "power to redirect the loyalties and expectations of political actors." In this pathbreaking book Haas contends that, based on his observations of the actual integration process, the idea of a "united Europe" took root in the years immediately following World War II. His careful and rigorous analysis tracks the development of the ECSC, including, in his 1968 preface, a discussion of the eventual loss of the individual identity of the ECSC through its absorption into the new European Community. Featuring a new introduction by Haas analyzing the impact of his book over time, as well as an updated bibliography, The Uniting of Europe is a must-have for political scientists and historians of modern and contemporary Europe. This book is the inaugural volume of Notre Dame's new Contemporary European Politics and Society Series.

This handbook offers a comprehensive picture of the European activities of national parliaments in all 28 member states of the European Union. In the aftermath of the Lisbon Treaty, it assesses the extent to which national legislatures actually matter in European governance.

Since the advent of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, a key turning point in terms of the crystallisation of opposition towards the European Union (EU), Euroscepticism has become a transnational phenomenon. The term ‘Euroscepticism’ has become common political language in all EU member states and, with the advent of the Eurozone, refugee and security crises have become increasingly ‘embedded’ within European nation states. Bringing together a collection of essays by established and up-and-coming authors in the field, this handbook paints a fuller, more holistic picture of the extent to which the Eurosceptic debate has influenced the EU and its member states. Crucially, it also focuses on what the consequences of this development are likely to be for the future direction of the European project. By adopting a broad-based, thematic approach, the volume centres on theory and conceptualisation, political parties, public opinion, non-party groups, the role of referendums – and the media – and of scepticism within the EU institutions. It also reflects on the future of Euroscepticism studies following the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the EU. Containing a full range of thematic contributions from eminent scholars in the field, The Routledge Handbook of Euroscepticism is a definitive frame of reference for academics, practitioners and those with an interest in the debate about the EU, and more broadly for students of European Studies, EU and European Politics.