The European Union: dilemmas of regional integration

Book abstract:

This book focuses on three dilemmas: the construction of European social policy, democracy and external relations. The author begins with a background chapter that provides readers with important information about the institutions and history of the European Union. In the chapters that follow, he examines dilemmas such as the conflict between national sovereignty and the development of regional social policies, the external impact of the European Union, for example, is it open or closed, a force for peace or a source of conflict?, and conflicts between democratic openness and accountability on the one hand and expert decision making on the other. Caporaso develops the implications of these dilemmas by placing them within broader debates in comparative and international politics.

The book is aimed at the novice as well as those more advanced in the knowledge of European affairs. It succeeds in being an accessible, concise book while pursuing its aims of focussing on a set of important topics in some detail.

The chapters are: Introduction; European social policy; national or regional?; Dilemmas of democracy in the European Union; Dilemmas of the external relations of the European Union; Conclusion.

James A. Caporaso is professor of political science at the University of Washington. He is co-editor with Maria Green Cowles and Thomas Risse of 'Transforming Europe: Europeanisation and Domestic Change'.