No detailed description available for "The Struggle for European Union by Political Parties and Pressure Groups in Western European Countries 1945-1950".

No detailed description available for "Transnational Organizations of Political Parties and Pressure Groups in the Struggle for European Union, 1945-1950".

This book is about the EU’s role in conflict resolution and reconciliation in Europe. Ever since it was implemented as a political project of the post-World War II reality in Western Europe, European integration has been credited with performing conflict resolution functions. It allegedly transformed the long-standing adversarial relationship between France and Germany into a strategic partnership. Conflict in Western Europe became obsolete. The end of the Cold War further reinforced its role as a regional peace project. While these evolutionary dynamics are uncontested, the deeper meaning of the process, its transformative power, is still to be elucidated. How does European integration restore peace when its equilibrium is broken and conflict or the legacies of enmity persist? This book sets out to do exactly that. It explores the peace and conflict-resolution role of European integration by testing its somewhat vague, albeit well-established, macro-political rationale of a peace project in the practical settings of conflicts. The analytical lens of that of Europeanization. The central argument of the book is that the evolution of the policy mix, resources, framing influences and political opportunities through which European integration affects conflicts and processes of conflict resolution demonstrates a historical trend through which the EU has become an indispensable factor of conflict resolution . It begins with the pooling together of policy-making at the European level for the management of particular sectors (early integration in the European Coal and Steel Community) through the functioning of core EU policies (Northern Ireland) to the challenges of enlargement (Cyprus) and the European perspective for the Western Balkans (Kosovo). The book will be of value to academics and non-expert observers alike with an interest in European integration and peace studies.

Nelsen and Guth contend that religion, or "confessional culture, " plays a powerful role in shaping European ideas about politics, attitudes toward European integration, and national and continental identities in its leaders and citizens. Catholicism has for centuries promoted the unity of Christendom, while Protestantism has valued particularity and feared Catholic dominance. These confessional cultures, the authors argue, have resulted in two very different visions of Europe that have deeply influenced the process of postwar integration. Catholics have seen Europe as a single cultural entity that is best governed by a single polity; Protestants have never felt part of continental culture and have valued national borders as protectors of liberties historically threatened by Catholic powers. Catholics have pressed for a politically united Europe; Protestants have resisted sacrificing sovereignty to federal institutions, favoring pragmatic cooperation. Despite growing secularization of the continent, not to mention the impact of Islam, confessional culture still exerts enormous influence. And, the authors conclude, European elites must recognize the enduring significance of this Catholic-Protestant cultural divide as the EU attempts to solve its social and economic and political crises.

The financial crisis – originated in 2008 in the United States – had a dramatic impact on the world economy. The European Union was immediately involved, but its reaction to the crisis was clearly inadequate. The misgovernment of the European economy not only put at risk the European Monetary Union, but it also caused further hindrances to the recovery of the global economy. The global financial turmoil shook deep-rooted beliefs. The doctrine of international neo-liberalism is more and more criticized. Nevertheless, the critics of neo-liberalism focus their attention on the relationship between the state and the market, as if the nation states, with their international organisations, have enough power for an effective global governance of the world economy. The model of European supranational integration, though seriously imperfect, can suggest some new way out from the crisis – even at the world level – based on a new relationship between the supranational government of the Union and the market. In this book, several academic disciplines are involved: international economics, international political economy, international law, international relations, political theory and democratic theory. Adopting such a multidisciplinary theoretical perspective, the volume tries to answer the following question: Is a more supranational Europe able to provide a better government of the EMU? Does this reform involve more European democracy?

An accessible yet thorough look at how historians and social scientists have thought and written about the history of the present-day European Union, and the main themes of their research and debates. Essential reading for historians of Europe and social scientists of the European Union alike.

A major textbook for comparative courses on European politics and for courses on the European Union, providing a panoramic survey of the political parties of Europe.