Federalizing Europe?
Subtitle: the costs, benefits, and preconditions of federal political systems
By: edited by Joachim Jens Hesse and Vincent Wright.
Contributors: Hesse, Joachim Jens.; Wright, Vincent.
Series: Nuffield European studies
Publisher: Oxford University Press; OUP Oxford
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Oxford [England]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 408
Subjects: Federal government -- Europe.; European federation.; Federal government.
Description: The constitutional and institutional development of the European Union, and federalism in particular, are widely and intensively debated. The issue of federalism has proved to be divisive and misunderstood. This book provides a critical reappraisal of the political, economic, and socio-cultural potential of current federal political-institutional arrangements.

It includes both an analysis of their necessary preconditions as well as an evaluation of their advantages and disadvantages compared with other forms of state organization.

The authors examine the issue at the level of the Union, the member states, and the states of Central and Eastern Europe, reflecting the increasing interdependence and interplay of these three levels: nation states in all parts of Europe influencing one another and the Union, and being influenced by it.

The book concludes with an overall assessment of the federalizing processes at work in Europe, both at the Union and the nation state level, and points out the problems, paradoxes, and likely outcomes of these processes.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.