A Certain Idea of Europe Contributor(s): Parsons, Craig (Author) |
|||
ISBN: 0801472962 ISBN-13: 9780801472961 Publisher: Cornell University Press
Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions Published: March 2006 Click for more in this series: Cornell Studies in Political Economy (Paperback) |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Political Science | Public Policy - Economic Policy - Political Science | International Relations - General - Business & Economics | International - Economics |
Dewey: 341.242 |
Age Level: 22-UP |
Grade Level: 17-UP |
Series: Cornell Studies in Political Economy (Paperback) |
Physical Information: 0.65" H x 6.16" W x 9.24" L (0.87 lbs) 272 pages |
Themes: - Cultural Region - Western Europe - Cultural Region - French |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: The quasi-federal European Union stands out as the major exception in the thinly institutionalized world of international politics. Something has led Europeans--and only Europeans--beyond the nation-state to a fundamentally new political architecture. Craig Parsons argues in A Certain Idea of Europe that this something was a particular set of ideas generated in Western Europe after the Second World War. In Parsons's view, today's European Union reflects the ideological (and perhaps visionary) project of an elite minority. His book traces the progressive victory of this project in France, where the battle over European institutions erupted most divisively. Drawing on archival research and extensive interviews with French policymakers, the author carefully traces a fifty-year conflict between radically different European plans. Only through aggressive leadership did the advocates of a supranational community Europe succeed at building the EU and binding their opponents within it. Parsons puts the causal impact of ideas, and their binding effects through institutions, at the center of his book. In so doing he presents a strong logic of social construction--a sharp departure from other accounts of EU history that downplay the role of ideas and ideology. |
Contributor Bio(s): Parsons, Craig: - Craig Parsons is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Oregon and author of books including A Certain Idea of Europe, also from Cornell, and How to Map Arguments in Political Science. |
Customer ReviewsSubmit your own review |
To tell a friend about this book, you must Sign In First! |