The Political System of the European Union

This volume on the politics of the European Union presents the EU as an emerging "political system", in which the government, policies and the politics of the system are inextricably linked. It looks at the way the EU is analyzed, studied and taught and provides comprehensive coverage of EU politics and a method of conceptualizing the EU.

The Political System of the European Union sets out an innovative way of analyzing, researching and teaching the European Union. Starting from the observation that the EU now possesses many of the attributes of modern political systems, Hix and Høyland argue that we should use the general theories of political science to help understand how the EU works. For each of the main processes in the EU political system – executive, legislative and judicial politics, public opinion, interest groups and democracy, and regulatory, monetary and foreign policies – the book introduces the key political science tools, reviews the relevant theories, and applies the knowledge in detailed descriptive analysis.

The third edition of this highly acclaimed and groundbreaking text has been fully revised and rewritten throughout. As well as incorporating new data and the latest research, it examines the consequences of key developments in the EU, from enlargement to the Lisbon treaty and the 2009 European Parliament election.