The Political History of European Integration: The Hypocrisy of Democracy-Through-Market (Routledge Advances in European Politics) - Softcover

Schulz-Forberg, Hagen; Stråth, Bo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415502756 ISBN 13: 9780415502757

Publisher: Routledge, 2012

Synopsis

The Maastricht Treaty in 1992 was based on neoliberal ideas of a market-driven European economy and democracy, and continues to be seen as a step towards a new stage of unification: towards a more federal Europe based on market integration. The authors demonstrate that European integration as a federal project actually came to an end around 1970. The European Economic Community (EEC) - the precursor of EU - was never thought of as a democracy. The authors locate a shift in thinking about legitimacy and further integration in the 1980s when the idea of a European democracy was connected with a plan for the internal market: the market would pave the way for democracy. Since then, there has been a growing tension between the official line about a democratic EU and the institutional capacity to carry it through. This tension undermined integration. The book suggests that, instead of democracy-through-market, there are signs of increasing social disintegration, political extremism and populism in the wake of economic integration. Providing a more realistic historical understanding of European integration, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, history and European studies.

About this title

About the Author

Hagen Schulz-Forberg is Assistant Professor in International History, University of Aarhus, Denmark.  Bo Stråth holds a Chair in Nordic, European and World History at the Renvall Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland.  He recently co-edited A European Memory? Contested Histories and Politics of Remembrance and European Solidarities: Tensions and Contentions of a Concept.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415502756
• ISBN 13: 9780415502757
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256