Multi-Level Governance and European Integration
By (author) Liesbet Hooghe University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Gary Marks Burton Craige Distinguished Professor of Political Science, UNC-Chapel Hill
Publication date:
04 April 2001Length of book:
272 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersDimensions:
238x158mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9780742510197
European politics has been reshaped in recent decades by a dual process of centralization and decentralization. At the same time that authority in many policy areas has shifted to the suprantional level of the European Union, so national governments have given subnational regions within countries more say over the lives of their citizens. At the forefront of scholars who characterize this dual process as Omulti-level governance,OLiesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks argue that its emergence in the second half of the twentieth century is a watershed in the political development of Europe. Hooghe and Marks explain why multi-level governance has taken place and how it shapes conflict in national and European political arenas. Drawing on a rich body of original research, the book is at the same time written in a clear and accessible style for undergraduates and non-experts.
This is the book for which many have waited. Over the last decade, the authors, singly and jointly, have published a series of fascinating articles that challenged the conventional dichotomy of intergovernmental and supranational interpretations of European Union politics. The present volume synthesizes and extends these analyses, demonstrating not only the superior plausibility and internal consistency of the multi-level perspective, but also the wide range of research questions to which it can be usefully applied. Among the highlights are not only definitive accounts of the rise and decline of multi-level cohesion policies, but also sophisticated analyses of multiple identifications at the level of constituencies and of divergent orientations toward European integration among Commission officials and among national political parties. Altogether, this volume combines a wealth of empirical information with incisive analyses that are integrated in a convincing theoretical framework. A must for every student of European Union politics.