Europe as Empire: The Nature of the Enlarged European Union - Softcover

Zielonka, Jan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199231869 ISBN 13: 9780199231867

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2007

Synopsis

This book seeks to comprehend the evolving nature of the European Union following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the failure of the European Constitution. Its prime focus is the last wave of enlargement that has profoundly transformed the EU. Although there are many parallels between the European integration process and state building processes, the Union is nothing like a Westphalian super state. The new emerging polity resembles a kind of neo-medieval empire with a polycentric system of government, multiple and overlapping jurisdictions, striking cultural and economic heterogeneity, fuzzy borders, and divided sovereignty. The book tries to spell out the origin, the shape, and the implications of this empire. The aim of this book is to suggest a novel way of thinking about the European Union and the process of European integration. The book shows 'two Europes' coming together following the end of the cold war. It proposes a system of economic and democratic governance that meets the ever greater challenges of modernization, interdependence, and globalization. It identifies the most plausible scenario of promoting peaceful change in Europe and beyond. The author argues that mainstream thinking about European integration is based on mistaken statist assumptions and suggests more effective and legitimate ways of governing Europe than through adoption of a European Constitution, creation of a European army, or introduction of a European social model. The book covers many fields from politics, and economics to foreign affairs and security. It analyzes developments in both Eastern and Western Europe. It also gives ample room to both theoretical and empirical considerations.

About this title

About the Author

Jan Zielonka is Professor of European Politics at the University of Oxford and Ralf Dahrendorf Fellow at St Antony's College.

Review

"Jan Zielonka's book may well prove to be the most important work of EU political theory since Andrew Moravcsik's The Choice for Europe."--he International History Review
"Europe as Empire is an ambitious and an important book which presents a radical case for a Europe perpetually enlarging, perpetually decentralizing and finding new ways to bring accountability and legitimacy...Zielonka brings a passion for Europe along with a refreshing scepticism of its
ambitions...and an ability to write clearly and elegantly, eschewing overly complex theory while also demonstrating considerable academic erudition."--European Foreign Affairs Review
"Jan Zielonka's book may well prove to be the most important work of EU political theory since Andrew Moravcsik's The Choice for Europe."--he International History Review
"Europe as Empire is an ambitious and an important book which presents a radical case for a Europe perpetually enlarging, perpetually decentralizing and finding new ways to bring accountability and legitimacy...Zielonka brings a passion for Europe along with a refreshing scepticism of its ambitions...and an ability to write clearly and elegantly, eschewing overly complex theory while also demonstrating considerable academic erudition."--European Foreign Affairs Review
"Europe as Empire is an ambitious and an important book which presents a radical case for a Europe perpetually enlarging, perpetually decentralizing and finding new ways to bring accountability and legitimacy...Zielonka brings a passion for Europe along with a refreshing scepticism of its ambitions...and an ability to write clearly and elegantly, eschewing overly complex theory while also demonstrating considerable academic erudition."--European Foreign Affairs Review
"Jan Zielonka's book may well prove to be the most important work of EU political theory since Andrew Moravcsik's The Choice for Europe."--he International History Review
"The book's main focus, and its greatest strength, is to show us how central and eastern European countries have been adapting to the EU and how the EU has been adapting to its enlargement to the east... The book represents an important contribution to our understanding of the EU, and in particular of the integration of central and eastern European states into the EU, and of the prospects of continuedenlargement, as well."--Political Science Quarterly
"Jan Zielonka's book may well prove to be the most important work of EU political theory since Andrew Moravcsik's The Choice for Europe."--he International History Review

"Europe as Empire is an ambitious and an important book which presents a radical case for a Europe perpetually enlarging, perpetually decentralizing and finding new ways to bring accountability and legitimacy...Zielonka brings a passion for Europe along with a refreshing scepticism of its ambitions...and an ability to write clearly and elegantly, eschewing overly complex theory while also demonstrating considerable academic erudition."--European Foreign Affairs Review

"Europe as Empire is an ambitious and an important book which presents a radical case for a Europe perpetually enlarging, perpetually decentralizing and finding new ways to bring accountability and legitimacy...Zielonka brings a passion for Europe along with a refreshing scepticism of its ambitions...and an ability to write clearly and elegantly, eschewing overly complex theory while also demonstrating considerable academic erudition."--European Foreign Affairs Review

"Jan Zielonka's book may well prove to be the most important work of EU political theory since Andrew Moravcsik's The Choice for Europe."--he International History Review

"The book's main focus, and its greatest strength, is to show us how central and eastern European countries have been adapting to the EU and how the EU has been adapting to its enlargement to the east... The book represents an important contribution to our understanding of the EU, and in particular of the integration of central and eastern European states into the EU, and of the prospects of continued enlargement, as well."--Political Science Quarterly

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0199231869
• ISBN 13: 9780199231867
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312