This ambitious Handbook covers the history, functioning and impact of cohesion policy, arguably the most tangible presence of the European Union in its twenty-eight member states. The contributions combine world-renowned scholars and country experts to discuss, in six parts, the policy's history and governing principles; the theoretical approaches from which it can be assessed; the inter-institutional and multi-level dynamics that it elicits; its practical implementation and impact on EU Member States; its interactions with other EU policies and strategies; and the cognitive maps and narratives with which it can be associated. This Handbook will be an invaluable resource to students and scholars of EU policies and politics and other related disciplines. In particular, they will benefit from the clarity with which the history and functioning of cohesion policy is laid out. Policy makers and other practitioners will also find this book of interest, due to its presentation of relevant debates. Contributors include: A. Agh, J. Aprans, R. Atkinson, J. Bachtler, J. Balsiger, J. Baudner, I. Begg, M. Brunazzo, R.L. Bubbico, A. Catalina Rubianes, D. Charles, N. Charron, R. Crescenzi, M. Dabrowski, A. Dahs, F. De Filippis, S. Ganzle, D. Hubner, A. Faina, A. Faludi, V. Fargion, U. Fratesi, P.R. Graziano, E. Gualini, E. Hepburn, C. Holguin, G. Karakatsanis, E. Kazamaki Ottersten, A. Kovacs, A. Lenschow, R. Leonardi, J. Lopez-Rodriguez, E. Massetti, P. McCann, C. Mendez, P. Montes-Solla, T. Muravska, T. Notermans, R.l Ortega-Argiles, I. Palne Kovacs, S. Piattoni, L. Polverari, S. Profeti, A.H. Schakel, J. Schoenlau, M.K. Sioliou, P. Stephenson, I. Toemmel, M. Weber, K. Zimmermann

How are the deals and decisions of the EU made - in the meeting rooms and at the conference tables, or by informal networks in the back corridors of power? This book addresses an issue of paramount importance concerning the politics of the European Union: aspects of governance and policy making in the EU that are labelled 'informal'. Much of the literature on the EU focuses on the formal facets of EU politics, but uniquely, the subject matter within this book deals with informal aspects such as: the role of personal relationships, the presence of non-hierarchical policy-networks and non-institutional channels of interest representation, and the relevance of the unwritten rules and routines which govern these aspects of EU politics. The contributors ascertain that the study of sectoral policy making in the EU is incomplete without attention to this informal governance, which is normatively and conceptually more complex than is generally assumed. They provide a number of different approaches to the subject, illuminating the nature of informal governance in the EU and demonstrating the way in which its analysis can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of politics and policy making in the EU. This highly original book will be a fascinating read for a wide-ranging audience - including academics, students, researchers and practitioners - with an interest in the governance of the EU.

In 2015, Matteo Renzi's government continued to elicit contrasting reactions while dealing with both internal and external constraints. Some say it passed crucial reforms for economic development in fields such as the labor market, the banking system, education, and public administration, in addition to passing a new electoral law. However, others criticize the substance and, even more, the way reforms were passed by constructing variable parliamentary majorities according to the vote at hand, thus avoiding the need to build consensual decision-making relationships with interest groups and further centralizing power in the office of the prime minister. Be that as it may, the government was able to impose its own agenda in domestic affairs. Although the success of the 2015 Universal Exposition in Milan helped to bolster the image of the country, Italy continued to play a marginal role in key international areas, such as migration, European austerity policies, and the fight against terrorism.

This is the first in-depth study of the Committee of the Regions and its role in the European policy process. It is rooted in the theory of European integration, including the 'normative turn', and will be essential reading for students of multilevel European politics.' - Michael Keating, University of Aberdeen, UK'Piattoni and Schonlau s innovative, careful, and multi-disciplinary analysis of the CoR helps us reconsider not only that institution but also EU democracy and governance. It deserves to be widely read by all who seek ways to improve EU governance or to understand the role of sub-state actors in EU politics.' - Alex Warleigh-Lack, Visiting Fellow, UNU-CRIS 'Piattoni and Schonlau's work is that rare combination of careful analysis and passionate argument. As the former, it is easily the most thorough and sophisticated study of how the Committee of Regions fits in the EU's institutional structure and the role it plays in its policy making process. As the latter, it is a theoretically astute, and normatively inspired defence of the way in which the CoR contributes to the articulation of democratic voice within the EU's multilevel structure of governance. As such, it is a reflection on how democratic representation works in complex societies, and it should be read by those interested in the legitimacy of the European Union and the question of democratic legitimacy at large.' - Dario Castiglione, University of Exeter, UK This ground breaking book looks at the way in which the Committee of Regions (CoR) can influence EU policy making from below, despite its relatively weak position in the decision-making process. In essence, the authors argue that the CoR plays a significant role in the EU's political process, going well beyond its formally limited advisory function. By applying theoretical considerations about the expression of judgment and the formation of will in democratic systems, the authors develop a normative argument about why it is opportune that local and regional concerns be involved in shaping European Union decisions. Moreover, by looking at the institutional development of the Committee, and by analyzing its contribution in key policy areas, the book shows why the CoR is already a very important element of the multi-level democratic system of the European Union. Academics, researchers and students will benefit from the up-to-date analysis of the CoR. Functionaries in the EU institutions, European regions and localities, state bureaucracies and political party members will find the new insights provided in this book to be of interest.

Can Italy and Germany thrive within the confines of the common currency, or do they display two fundamentally incompatible models? This book examines this question by means of detailed comparisons in the fields of labour market policies, welfare provisions and financial and economic management, since the onset of the financial crisis and through the euro and COVID-19 crises. The rapid succession of the financial crisis, the Eurozone crisis and COVID-19 have again brought to the fore questions that have beset European integration since its inception; does the EU promote convergence or divergence? Have these crises served to reveal pre-existing politico-economic incompatibilities or were these incompatibilities created by the euro and the measures propounded by the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)? Should EMU recipes be followed, or should they be fundamentally revised in an effort to come good on the convergence promises underpinning the European project? And, lastly, is the COVID-19 crisis likely to mitigate or exacerbate these problems? These questions are addressed in this volume by means of a tight comparison between Germany and Italy, two countries that have displayed strikingly divergent trajectories but also share many more politico-economic traits than the conventional wisdom would allow for. By exploring in detail how the main elements of the euro and EMU management have played out, the volume highlights the externalities that becoming part of a currency union has created and that strengthened the economic success of one while consolidating the decline of the other and analyses the likely impact of the measures introduced to fight the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, German Politics.

This book explores the theoretical issues, empirical evidence, and normative debates elicited by the concept of multi-level governance (MLG). The concept is a useful descriptor of decision-making processes that involve the simultaneous mobilization of public authorities at different jurisdictional levels as well as that of non-governmental organizations and social movements. It has become increasingly relevant with the weakening of territorial state power and effectiveness and the increase in international interdependencies which serve to undermine conventional governmental processes. This book moves towards the construction of a theory of multi-level governance by defining the analytical contours of this concept, identifying the processes that can uniquely be denoted by it, and discussing the normative issues that are raised by its diffusion, particularly in the European Union.
It is divided into three parts, each meeting a specific challenge--theoretical, empirical, normative. It focuses on three analytical dimensions: multi-level governance as political mobilization (politics), as authoritative decision-making (policy), and as state restructuring (polity). Three policy areas are investigated in vindicating the usefulness of MLG as a theoretical and empirical concept--cohesion, environment, higher education--with particular reference to two member-states: the UK and Germany. Finally, both the input and output legitimacy of multi-level governance decisions and arrangements and its contribution to EU democracy are discussed. As a loosely-coupled policy-making arrangement, MLG is sufficiently structured to secure coordination among public and private actors at different jurisdictional levels, yet sufficiently flexible to avoid "joint decision traps." This balance is obtained at the cost of increasingly blurred boundaries between public and private actors and a change in the established hierarchies between territorial jurisdictions.

Based on an analytical evaluation of both the weaknesses and strengths of the Italian political system, Italy in the European Union is the first book to offer a detailed and comprehensive description of Italy's contribution to European Union policy-making. The contributors to this volume systematically explore the role played by Italian institutional and noninstitutional actors in several decision-making processes. They show how Italian institutional actors define and promote national policy preferences that are compatible with those of the other European member states. However, the book functions on two levels: it is both a nuanced picture of Italy's role in the EU and a study of the EU as it has been transformed by subsequent waves of enlargement. In a compound polity of twenty-seven member states the formation of stable hegemonic coalitions is implausible-the concept of national interest, which still informs much of the literature on the EU, is logically and empirically unusable in many EU policy realms. Combining empirical investigation and theoretical analysis, this book is indispensable for scholars, students, and practitioners who study or observe Italian politics. It is also necessary for those who want to understand the transformation of European politics and the European Union's increasing development as a compound polity. Contributions by: Marco Brunazzo, Maurizio Carbone, Sabrina Cavatorto, Vincent Della Sala, Alessia Dona, Sergio Fabbrini, Paolo Foradori, Giorgio Giraudi, Renata Lizzi, Simona Piattoni, Paolo Rosa, Stefano Sacchi, Alberta M. Sbragia, Daniela Sicurelli, and Luca Verzichelli

This book seeks to answer the question 'Which institutional architecture for which kind of democracy for the EU?' by bringing two important recent debates together- the institutional analysis of the Union and its democratic assessment. The book examines a series of institutional architectures in light of the democratic quality of the processes and decisions generated by them. The discussion of these various institutional architectures is preceded by an analysis of the democratic values and principles according to which institutional architectures and governance structures should be assessed. The first part of the volume starts from key democratic principles and indicates which institutional architectures are most likely to embody them. The second part is dedicated to those institutional architectures that best describe the current state of the European Union and its likely future development, particularly given the impact of the current economic crisis. The fundamental belief that animates this volume is that it is only by paying attention to the democratic legitimacy of the Union that the process of European integration may hope to be sustainable, particularly in the face of the difficult economic crisis that the members of the Euro-area and the Union in general are experiencing.

This book charts the evolution of clientelist practices in several western European countries. Through the historical and comparative analysis of countries as diverse as Sweden and Greece, England and Spain, France and Italy, Iceland and the Netherlands, the authors study both the "supply-side" and the "demand-side" of clientelism. This approach contends that clientelism is a particular mix of particularism and universalism, in which interests are aggregated at the level of the individual and his family "particularism," but in which all interests can potentially find expression and accommodation in "universalism."

This book charts the evolution of clientelist practices in several western European countries. Through the historical and comparative analysis of countries as diverse as Sweden and Greece, England and Spain, France and Italy, Iceland and the Netherlands, the authors study both the "supply-side" and the "demand-side" of clientelism. This approach contends that clientelism is a particular mix of particularism and universalism, in which interests are aggregated at the level of the individual and his family "particularism," but in which all interests can potentially find expression and accommodation in "universalism."