As the most developed political organisation beyond the state, the EU has been regarded by many political theorists as indicative of a major shift towards post- and supranational forms of global governance, as well as offering a model for how such new political forms might be organised. However, as a growing number of political theorists have engaged more closely with the specifics of European integration and the operations of its institutions, these idealisations have largely fallen away. The process of European integration has been less straightforward and far more contested than has been often assumed, while the peculiar nature of the European political community and the uniquely complex organisation of its institutions have presented intriguing challenges to the core categories with which political theory operates. These concepts, which have been developed over the last centuries with the nation-state in mind as the primary example of modern political organization, cannot be applied wholesale to the EU. Concepts such as legitimacy, sovereignty, democracy, identity, citizenship, constitutionalism, representation, solidarity, etc. must be reassessed if they are to be useful for understanding and normatively scrutinising this political entity. This volume brings together some of the most important scholarly contributions over the last decades that have sought to contribute towards developing a political theory of the EU as an idiosyncratic political organisation. These contributions raise issues not only about the feasibility of attempts to construct political forms beyond the nation state, but also the extent to which they may be desirable. A mixed picture emerges from the state of the art: one that emphasises the existence and importance of continuities with the past in the development of international institutions on the one hand, and conceptual and practical innovations that point towards the need to break with the familiar on the other.

In Liberalism and Pluralism the author explores the challenges conflicting values, interests and identities pose to liberal democracy. Richard Bellamy illustrates his criticism and proposals by reference to such topical issues as the citizens charter, constitutional reform, the Rushdie affair and the development of the European Union.

This book explores the various ways in which citizens are represented in EU policy-making. Most accounts naturally focus on the European Parliament as the prime source of democratic representation. This collection focuses instead on four other channels that are as and often more important: namely, representation via governments, national parliaments, civil society organisations and directly, via referenda. Based on original research, the book combines democratic theory with detailed empirical analysis to provide an innovative, timely and up-to-date evaluation of the nature of representation in the EU. Policy advisors, practitioners and those scholars interested in democracy and the European Union will find this volume to be a valuable resource. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of European Integration.

In Liberalism and Pluralism the author explores the challenges conflicting values, interests and identities pose to liberal democracy. Richard Bellamy illustrates his criticism and proposals by reference to such topical issues as the citizens charter, constitutional reform, the Rushdie affair and the development of the European Union.

The crisis of liberalism is found in the liberal claim to endorse a set of neutral procedures that allow individuals and groups to pursue their own good, when the very possibility of such neutrality is brought into question by the growth of plural societies, and the divided loyalties that go with them. This collection explores this crisis. Modern states rely on agreements to secure the loyalty of citizens. But growing social pluralism means a growing division in loyalties among citizens along lines of ideology, ethnicity, gender, religion and locale. The liberal answer to diversity is to devise a set of fair procedures - which do not dictate the ultimate good chosen by members. The question which the contributors directly confront is whether such neutrality is genuinely possible.

European Union boundaries have always been unusual. In no other political community is both the prospect of enlargement and the ever-present possibility of withdrawal part of the constitutional framework. We find few other instances where some territories in a political community adopt a common currency while others do not. Examples of thick association agreements, such as we find between the EU and third countries like Switzerland and Norway, are uncommon. Over the last number of years, EU boundaries have been challenged like never before. Brexit poses a fundamental threat to the EU's territorial integrity and the rights of EU citizens to cross what have been regarded as open borders; the refugee crisis and the increase of terrorism both call into question the EU's ability to justly and effectively manage its external borders; the rise of populism is a direct challenge to internal free movement as the demand to reassert national borders becomes formidable; while the aftermath of the euro-crisis continues to put Monetary Union in doubt. By distinguishing between three categories of boundary change - boundary-making, boundary-crossing and boundary-unbundling - the authors in this volume attempt to shed light on the sustainability and legitimacy of Europe's boundaries in question. The chapters originally published as a special issue in the Journal of European Integration.

The European Union (EU) is often portrayed as sacrificing national diversity for European unity. This book explores the alternative of a flexible EU based on differentiated rather than uniform integration. The authors combine normative theory with empirical research on political party actors to assess the desirability and political acceptability of differentiated integration as a means of accommodating heterogeneity in the EU. They examine the circumstances and institutional design needed for flexibility to promote rather than undermine fairness and democracy within and between member states. Clear, balanced, and accessible, the book provides fresh thinking on the future of the EU.

This book explores the various ways in which citizens are represented in EU policy-making. Most accounts naturally focus on the European Parliament as the prime source of democratic representation. This collection focuses instead on four other channels that are as and often more important: namely, representation via governments, national parliaments, civil society organisations and directly, via referenda. Based on original research, the book combines democratic theory with detailed empirical analysis to provide an innovative, timely and up-to-date evaluation of the nature of representation in the EU.

Policy advisors, practitioners and those scholars interested in democracy and the European Union will find this volume to be a valuable resource.

This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of European Integration.

Neoliberal reforms and globalization have deeply transformed the state and set in motion a momentous shift from 'government' to 'governance'. Governance entails a move away from traditional hierarchical forms of organization and the adoption of network forms. It also entails a revision of the relationship between state and civil society in a more participatory direction. Governance is finally said to be responsible for shifting the emphasis away from statute law to more flexible forms of regulation and implementation. The state is thus claimed to be superseded by a 'networked polity' where authority is devolved to task-specific institutions with unlimited jurisdictions and intersecting memberships operating at sub- and supra-national level. This volume brings together a representative sample of the key articles that established governance as a major field of research and helped clarify the main critical issues to be addressed by those involved in research and teaching in this area.

Political accountability forms a cornerstone of modern democracy: it directs the political system towards the public interest and allows the exercise of the principles of autonomy and self-determination that lie at the core of democratic politics. Sadly, existing democracies, with their large, centralized bureaucracies, have evolved in ways that progressively undermine the ability of citizens to keep their representatives accountable and political regimes responsive. Far from reversing this trend, the neoliberal reforms introduced since the 1980s have increased that accountability gap. Globalization and the alleged passage from 'government' to 'governance' have aggravated the problem further. The notion of accountability that survives these changes is a problematic form of auditing carried out by a constellation of quangos, autonomous agencies and NGOs whose own accountability is problematic. This volume collects the main contributions to current debates on political accountability. It explores the challenges traditional conventions of accountability face today at the domestic, trans- and international levels and indicates the distinctive solutions those challenges require.

Political realists are accustomed to argue that ethical considerations have no place in public affairs. This is always a debatable view: realism habitually employs a crude utilitarian morality rather than being totally amoral, and ethical considerations have continued to play an ever more prominent role in the thinking and actions of policy makers and politicians. In addition, citizens increasingly expect policies not only to be efficient and effective according to some purely economic or prudential calculation, but also to be equitable and just as well. As a consequence, both the public and private morality of politicians and public officials has come under ever greater scrutiny. The essays collected together in this volume explore the ethical issues raised by the process and substance of policy-making, and discuss whether it is reasonable to expect ethical standards in public affairs.

The rule of law is frequently invoked in political debate, yet rarely defined with any precision. Some employ it as a synonym for democracy, others for the subordination of the legislature to a written constitution and its judicial guardians. It has been seen as obedience to the duly-recognised government, a form of governing through formal and general rule-like laws and the rule of principle. Given this diversity of view, it is perhaps unsurprising that certain scholars have regarded the concept as no more than a self-congratulatory rhetorical device. This collection of eighteen key essays from jurists, political theorists and public law political scientists, aims to explore the role law plays in the political system. The introduction evaluates their arguments. The first eleven essays identify the standard features associated with the rule of law. These are held to derive less from any characteristics of law per se than from a style of legislating and judging that gives equal consideration to all citizens. The next seven essays then explore how different ways of separating and dispersing power contribute to this democratic style of rule by forcing politicians and judges alike to treat people as equals and regard none as above the law.

Interest in citizenship has never been higher. Politicians of all stripes stress its importance, as do church leaders, captains of industry and every kind of campaigning group--from those supporting global causes, such as tackling world poverty, to others with a largely local focus, such as combating neighborhood crime. In this brilliant, compact introduction, Richard Bellamy offers an eye-opening look at an idea that is as important as it is rare--the prospect of influencing government policy according to reasonably fair rules and on a more or less equal basis with others. Bringing together the most recent scholarship, the book sheds light on how ideas of citizenship have changed through time from ancient Greece to the present, looks at concepts such as membership and belonging, and highlights the relation between citizenship, rights, and democracy. Bellamy also examines the challenges confronting the very possibility of citizenship today, the impact of globalization, the desirability of "global citizenship," the teaching of citizenship in schools, citizenship tests for immigrants, and the many different definitions and types of citizenship in modern society.
About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

Constitutionalism and democracy have been interpreted as both intimately related and intrinsically opposed. On the one hand constitutions are said to set out the rules of the democratic game, on the other as constraining the power of the demos and their representatives to rule themselves - including by reforming the very processes of democracy itself. Meanwhile, constitutionalists themselves differ on how far any constitution derives its authority from, and should itself be subject to democratic endorsement and interpretation. They also dispute whether constitutions should refer solely to democratic processes, or also define and limit democratic goals. Each of these positions produces a different view of judicial review, the content and advisability of a Bill of Rights and the nature of constitutional politics. These differences are not simply academic positions, but are reflected in the different types of constitutional democracy found in the United States, continental Europe, Britain and many commonwealth countries. The selected essays explore these issues from the perspectives of law, philosophy and political science. A detailed and informative introduction sets them in the context of contemporary debates about constitutionalism.

European Union boundaries have always been unusual. In no other political community is both the prospect of enlargement and the ever-present possibility of withdrawal part of the constitutional framework. We find few other instances where some territories in a political community adopt a common currency while others do not. Examples of thick association agreements, such as we find between the EU and third countries like Switzerland and Norway, are uncommon. Over the last number of years, EU boundaries have been challenged like never before. Brexit poses a fundamental threat to the EU's territorial integrity and the rights of EU citizens to cross what have been regarded as open borders; the refugee crisis and the increase of terrorism both call into question the EU's ability to justly and effectively manage its external borders; the rise of populism is a direct challenge to internal free movement as the demand to reassert national borders becomes formidable; while the aftermath of the euro-crisis continues to put Monetary Union in doubt. By distinguishing between three categories of boundary change - boundary-making, boundary-crossing and boundary-unbundling - the authors in this volume attempt to shed light on the sustainability and legitimacy of Europe's boundaries in question. The chapters originally published as a special issue in the Journal of European Integration.

This book offers a stimulating new approach to studying social and political theory. It combines specially selected extracts from the political classics with original and insightful essays offering a commentary upon them. The reader is drawn into a dialogue with the Western political tradition's principal thinkers, whose ideas provide a common currency in which to debate the problems facing modern societies. Each of the twelve chapters combines extracts from two (or in one case three) political philosophers on a key political concept with a commentary essay. Each chapter does more than just introduce the reader to the classics; it also explains, via the commentary essay, the key concepts of political debate, and the historical contexts which led the thinkers to their different understandings of the nature of society. -- .

Is political theory political enough? Or does a tendency toward abstraction, idealization, moralism, and utopianism leave contemporary political theory out of touch with real politics as it actually takes place, and hence unable to speak meaningfully to or about our world? Realist political thought, which has enjoyed a significant revival of interest in recent years, seeks to avoid such pitfalls by remaining attentive to the distinctiveness of politics and the ways its realities ought to shape how we think and act in the political realm. Politics Recovered brings together prominent scholars to develop what it might mean to theorize politics "realistically." Intervening in philosophical debates such as the relationship between politics and morality and the role that facts and emotions should play in the theorization of political values, the volume addresses how a realist approach aids our understanding of pressing issues such as global justice, inequality, poverty, political corruption, the value of democracy, governmental secrecy, and demands for transparency. Contributors open up fruitful dialogues with a variety of other realist approaches, such as feminist theory, democratic theory, and international relations. By exploring the nature and prospects of realist thought, Politics Recovered shows how political theory can affirm reality in order to provide meaningful and compelling answers to the fundamental questions of political life.

Combining international political theory and EU studies, Richard Bellamy provides an original account of the democratic legitimacy of international organisations. He proposes a new interpretation of the EU's democratic failings and how they might be addressed. Drawing on the republican theory of freedom as non-domination, Bellamy proposes a way to combine national popular sovereignty with the pursuit of fair and equitable relations of non-domination among states and their citizens. Applying this approach to the EU, Bellamy shows that its democratic failings lie not with the democratic deficit at the EU level but with a democratic disconnect at the member state level. Rather than shifting democratic authority to the European Parliament, this book argues that the EU needs to reconnect with the different 'demoi' of the member states by empowering national parliaments in the EU policy-making process.

Is the European Union still a viable project? The last few years have been difficult both economically and politically, while its integrative function and legitimacy have been seriously tested. For many social, economic and geo-political reasons, its expansionary moment has stopped abruptly. On the contrary, the Greek economic crisis and the Brexit referendum have raised the spectre of fragmentation and political disintegration. The promise of the EU as a possible model for legitimate governance beyond the nation state lies somewhat in tatters. Even if the EU may indeed survive most of its current crises, is the project of a EU as a normative project beyond rescue? Ever since Maastricht, the democratic legitimacy of the EU has been a key concern of policy makers, citizens and academics alike. This issue is essentially a normative one, and over the same period our work in this area has been at the forefront in exploring what has come to be known (following an early working paper we wrote with this title in 2000) 'the normative turn in EU studies'. The debate on the democratic form and legitimacy of the EU is one that has gone on for some time and to which we, together with other scholars, have tried to contribute in the course of the last twenty years or so. Collecting articles written over the course of this period is not just meant as the testimony of an intellectual journey, but also a way of tracing such a journey in retrospect and mapping the important moments of the intellectual and scholarly debates that have contributed to shaping both our understanding and our expectations of the EU's possible futures.

This book gathers together fifteen classic essays by leading scholar Richard Bellamy, tracing the history of Italian political thought from Beccaria to Bobbio. Written over the past 25 years, they constitute the first account in English of the modern Italian political tradition. The author pays special attention to the different ways Italian theorists have linked politics and ethics, and their various conceptions of the state and of democracy. The resulting variations on Machiavellian themes gave rise to distinctively Italian understandings of Liberalism, Marxism, Fascism and Socialism, which were all associated with a peculiarly realist account of democracy. Among the thinkers discussed are Cesare Beccaria, Antonio Genovesi, Giuseppe Mazzini, Benedetto Croce, Giovanni Gentile, Antonio Gramsci, Vilfredo Pareto, Gaetano Mosca and Norberto Bobbio.

European citizenship has been a key issue since the Treaty of Maastricht. Both governmental and non-governmental actors have seen the extension of the citizenship provisions as an important part of the drive to democratize the EU. Recent years have seen some important institutional and political developments. The Treaty of Amsterdam clarified the formal allocation of citizenship rights, emphasising the complementary nature of EU citizenship with respect to member state nationality. It also made significant changes to European citizenship as an institutionalized practice, and incorporated the Schengen agreements on freedom of movement. European citizenship has attracted the attention of both EU and citizenship scholars. However, these groups frequently talk past each other. This book is the first to address both groups. Contributions by experts across several disciplines link citizenship not only to the Treaty provisions but also to the emerging patterns of governance in, and the policy regimes of, the EU. Normative and empirical analysis is combined to reveal the political, legal, economic and social dimensions of this new status, charting its development through the practices of both the EU institutions and its holders, EU citizens themselves. The authors argue that EU citizenship is about far more than the rights member state nationals are granted by the Treaty. It is also steeped in the policies and institutions of the Union itself and in particular their ability to engage the general public.

Citizenship, denoting full and active membership of the national and political community, has been recognized as a critical concept since ancient times. However, three key and related changes have occurred to each of the basic components of this concept that have altered dramatically to whom and to what it now refers, and the contexts in which it seems proper to use it. First, the scope of membership-or who can be a citizen-has broadened considerably. Second, the rights and duties of citizenship have likewise been transformed. Finally, the contours of the political community, or the loci where it is appropriate and necessary to adopt civic behaviour, has similarly altered. Changes in one dimension have tended to lead to concomitant changes to the others. For example, the inclusion of women as full members of the political community has initiated a long process of reform to the entitlements and obligations of citizenship, and has challenged not only the traditional contours of the public and private, but also the venues for citizenly activity and the forms it might take. This new collection from Routledge's Critical Concepts in Political Science series brings together in four volumes both canonical and cutting-edge research to enable users to make sense of the theory and practice of citizenship. Volume I explores the classic theories of citizenship: starting with historical accounts of ancient and early modern citizenship, and then charting the shift from republican to liberal citizenship in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The volume's focus is then on T. H. Marshall's view of citizenship within the liberal democratic, national welfare states that emerged after the Second World War, and the critiques that came from new left and new right alike from the 1970s onwards. Volume II asks 'Who is a Citizen?'. The major works gathered in this volume take particular account of the impact of feminist activism and scholarship; the emergence and critique of multiculturalism in addressing ethnic, 'racial' and religious diversity; and the rights asserted by immigrants and asylum seekers. Volume III, meanwhile, gathers the best scholarship on citizenship practice, and explores how the rights and duties of citizenship have moved from the state sphere strictly defined, to encompass a much broader reading of politics that also includes much of civil society. The final volume of the collection addresses the ways in which issues about and around citizenship have simultaneously extended beyond the state into transnational and supranational contexts (such as the European Union), and have also, in some instances, become devolved from the state to the regional and local levels. With a full index, and a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editors, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Citizenship is an essential work of reference. The collection will be particularly useful as a database allowing scattered and often fugitive material to be easily located. It will also be welcomed as a crucial tool permitting rapid access to less familiar-and sometimes overlooked-texts. For researchers, students, and policy-makers, it is as a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.

This 1994 collection of Gramsci's pre-prison writings, translated and including a number of pieces not previously available in English, covers the whole gamut of his journalistic activity, ranging from general cultural criticism to commentaries on local, national and international events. These early articles reveal the genesis of many of the themes of the Prison Notebooks, such as the function of intellectuals, the importance of cultural hegemony in holding societies together, and the role of the party in organising a revolutionary consciousness. In particular, the collection highlights the specifically Italian political, cultural and social origins and relevance of much of Gramsci's innovatory reworking of certain central concepts of Marxist thought. It will be of interest to a broad range of scholars and students concerned with the history of political, social and cultural thought in the twentieth century.

This text provides a clear and systematic introduction to the development of social and political theory in modern Italy. It gives particular attention to relating the main traditions of Italian thought to the history of the country since unification. The work concentrates on six major thinkers, examining how their theoretical ideas influenced their analysis of political behaviour. The thinkers concerned are Pareto, Mosca, Labriola, Croce, Gentile and Gramsci. In discussing the respective theories of each author, the book situates them within the intellectual and social contexts to which they were addressed. The concluding chapter focuses on the recent debates between Bobbio, della Volpe and others about the validity of the Italian road to socialism and its compatibility with the liberal values and institutions of Western democracies.