ABSTRACT

A key textbook for undergraduate and postgraduate students of contemporary European politics, European Union: Power and policy-making 4th edition offers a comprehensive and accessible analysis of the European Union policy process.

Intended to advance understanding of the EU as a now mature and ongoing policy system, this book addresses the central issues relating to the distribution of power and influence in the European Union including:

  • Theoretical perspectives
  • The roles of key institutions in the processing of policy problems
  • Different channels of representation
  • The EU as a policy-making state

Written by a distinguished group of international scholars, this new edition will also appeal to the worldwide community of researchers on the EU.

New to this edition: 

  • New chapters on The Politics of Multispeed Europe, The Distribution of Power Among Institutions, EU Agencies, Covert Integration in the European Union, and Political Representation and Democracy in the EU.
  • New authors and theoretical approaches on many topics such as differentiated integration, opt-outs and multi-speed integration, negotiation and coalition building, the interplay of judicial and legislative policy-making, power distribution, agency behaviour, integration by subterfuge, the democratic deficit
  • fully updated data and content throughout

Jeremy Richardson is joined by a co-editor, Professor Sonia Mazey, for the fourth expanded edition of this highly regarded textbook on the EU.

Jeremy Richardson is an Emeritus Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, UK, and Adjunct Professor at the National Centre for Research on Europe, University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He is also Founder and Co-editor of the Journal of European Public Policy

Sonia Mazey is a Professor and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the College of Business and Law, University of Canterbury, New Zealand and formally a Fellow of Keble College, Oxford, UK

part 1|80 pages

State Building, Differentiated Integration and a Multispeed Europe

chapter 1|30 pages

The EU as a policy-making state

A policy system like any other?

chapter 2|30 pages

The EU as a system of differentiated integration

A challenge for theories of European integration?

part 2|178 pages

Institutional Processing

chapter 4|24 pages

The European Commission

chapter 6|24 pages

The councils of the EU

Intergovernmental bargaining in a supranational polity

chapter 7|30 pages

The shadow of case law

The Court of Justice of the European Union and the policy process

chapter 9|22 pages

The EU budget

Which fiscal capacity at the European level?

chapter 10|26 pages

EU agencies

part 3|138 pages

Variegated Policy-Making

chapter 11|22 pages

EU enlargement

chapter 12|24 pages

The EU as an international actor

chapter 13|20 pages

European regulation

chapter 16|26 pages

Implementation

part 4|96 pages

Channels of Representation

chapter 18|26 pages

Shooting where the ducks are

EU lobbying and institutionalized promiscuity

chapter 19|22 pages

Bypassing the nation-state?

Regions and the EU policy process