About the Book
Written by one of the premier scholars on the European Union and hailed as the best undergraduate text on the subject, this book has been thoroughly revised and updated to include the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. Clear and comprehensive, it "demystifies" one of the world's most important and least understood institutions. Roy H. Ginsberg contextualizes European integration through the foundation blocks of history, law, economics, and politics. He then breaks the EU down into its components so that they can be understood individually and in relation to the whole. Reconstructing the EU as a single polity, Ginsberg evaluates the EU's domestic and foreign policies and their effects on Europeans and non-Europeans alike. The author thus challenges students to see what the European Union truly represents: a unique experiment in regional cooperation and a remarkable model of conflict resolution for the world's troubled regions.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Part I: Foundations
Chapter 1: Unity and Disunity
Chapter 2: Theory and Practice of Modern European Integration
Chapter 3: The Economic and Legal Foundations of the European Community
Part II: The European Union in Practice
Chapter 4: The Contexts and Actors of EU Governmental Decisionmaking
Chapter 5: Inside EU Governmental Decisionmaking
Chapter 6: The Outputs of EU Governmental Decisionmaking
Chapter 7: European Union Foreign Policy
Part III: Evaluating European Integration
Chapter 8: The Internal Dimension of European Integration
Chapter 9: The External Dimension of European Integration
Chapter 10: Conclusions
About the Author :
Roy H. Ginsberg is Jean Monnet Chair in European Integration Studies and Joseph C. Palamountain, Jr. Chair in Government at Skidmore College.
Review :
Currently, the EU is confronted with dramatic financial challenges testing the endurance of its foundations. While some may question the prospects of a stable EU and even foresee disintegration, the logic underpinning its regional integration endures. Ginsberg offers a comprehensive overview of the EU along with a wealth of informative charts and tables as well as thought-provoking study questions that ultimately underscore the enduring logic of regional integration in this easily accessible, detailed-oriented second edition of a textbook designed for students taking courses on European integration. Bound by shared geography, history, religions, economy, and civilization, the EU is not an accident of history but a history of dialectical unity and disunity. Accordingly, the comprehensive overview begins with a historical perspective of the EU that spans 2,000 years and then turns to the political thought and political theory associated with European integration. In addition to examining the legal and economic foundations of the EU, the volume, from a policy-making perspective, continues with a detailed explanation of the decision-making processes and the relevant political institutions and concludes with a discussion and assessment of policy outcomes. Recommended.
This book provides a lucid—and much needed—'demystification' of the European Union. Anyone interested in the EU will find this book extraordinarily worthwhile for introducing the reader to the history, the policies, the politics, and the international relations of a unique and very important actor in the world.
Demystifying the European Union is a rare and wonderful find—a highly readable, provocative textbook full of useful and usable information. I thoroughly enjoyed the approach, which thankfully gets away from some of the traditional textbook format. Ginsberg's aim to 'demystify' the EU through an interdisciplinary and comparative approach is to be greatly commended. His comparison of EU governmental institutions to those of the United States sheds much light on the governmental features unique to the EU. A must read for students and instructor alike.
Roy Ginsberg is the premier American scholar on the European Union. Better than anyone, he has elaborated the sui generis nature of an institution in which independent Member States have pooled their sovereignty in certain areas and retained it in other areas. But in his newest book, he has emphasized how this unique regional integration has grown over time, not just in the number of Member States, but in the development and maturity of its institutions. The breadth of his scholarship and his impact on transatlantic relations are astonishing. This book is yet another of his seminal works and a must-read for anyone interested in understanding one of the most important and least understood institutions in the world, the European Union.
A clear, in-depth account of the process of European integration. . . . Very well written and extremely well organized, Ginsberg's book provides students of European integration with a fresh approach to issues such as political unity, political thought, decision-making, and international security. . . . A must read for anybody interested in European studies.
The best undergraduate text I have ever seen on European integration. It's easy to read, and I was so pleased to see the glossary and bolding of terms such as 'comparative advantage' and 'globalization.' Too often, books on the EU assume knowledge of such terms, and I spend most of my class explaining their European context.
This is the book we have all been waiting for: a text that covers everything we need to know about the EU in a highly readable form. The book takes a broad sweep, recapping the history of Europe before detailing the history of the European Union, reviewing the theories of European integration, and explaining what goes on inside the EU before turning to how it deals with the outside world. It will be welcomed by novices looking for an intelligent introduction to the mysteries of EU governance and by teachers searching for a text that really does 'demystify' the EU.
Ginsberg's book is indispensable for students and scholars seeking a clear, accurate, and readable account of how the European Union works. He traces the organization's history, clarifies its institutions and procedures, and critically assesses a vast amount of literature on the subject. This comprehensive and reader-friendly text is the best I've seen.
Roy Ginsberg is probably the leading U.S. academic expert on the complexities of the European Union's external relations. Yet his writing never fails to address the big questions—of power, sovereignty, and purpose—which the subject raises, and he does so in a deeply humanistic way.
Roy Ginsberg has produced a terrific piece of work to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the European Union's birth certificate. This book really DOES demystify the EU for the interested beginner, while even the most grizzled veterans will learn things they didn't know. If there is another book on the EU that is this much fun to read, I've not yet found it.
One of the most accessible books I have ever used in a class on the European Union. What I liked most was the combination of historical overview and theoretical discussion so students could see how actual political events have shaped the theoretical debates. The book's language is easy to understand (especially for U.S. students who have almost no prior knowledge of the EU) and the content is well structured.
Ginsberg's text is deliberately pedagogic, with welcome concluding sections in each chapter on review, key concepts, study questions, and recommendations for further reading. . . . Exemplary in providing the simple analytical building blocks—supranationalism, intergovernmentalism, acquis communautaire, acquis politique, multispeed Europe, outputs, comitology, and the like—and then showing how blurred these concepts become as political clashes and pragmatic compromises unpredictably mix bits of each approach. . . . The beginning student could hardly find [a] better guide to the unique construction of the European Union than [this] introductory text.
Discussing all three worlds [of European Integration] in one volume, Roy Ginsberg's Demystifying the European Union: The Enduring Logic of Regional Integration needs to be recommended as an excellent overview of the many faces of European integration.
Ginsberg is eminently qualified to undertake the task of unraveling the mystery that is the European Union. . . . [He] adopts an interdisciplinary and conceptually sophisticated approach to the study of [the] EU with [an] elegant and expert fusion of theory with practice. Crisply and engagingly written. . . . Finally, the pedagogic tools found at the end of each chapter, such as key concepts, study questions and selected readings (and websites), are extremely useful for teacher and student alike.
