Contemporary European Politics : A Comparative Introduction

The unification of the European continent since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and the collapse of communist regimes in central and eastern Europe has changed the nature of European politics. This book wants to address the new European politics that emerged out of this coming together of west and east. In the book a pan-European comparative approach is used to analyse the different political systems. Although the focus of the book will be to compare the national political systems across Europe, it also contextualises national politics in the growing importance of European integration. The European Union multi-level governance system approach will be used to show the relationships and interactions between the global, supranational, national, regional and local levels. The book will argue that European politics changed since the 1970s from modern politics, in which the nation-state was still in command of domestic politics and its own borders to post-modern politics in which de-territorialization , de-nationalisation and internationalization processes have changed considerably the nature of national politics of European states. The book includes chapters on the history, theory, institutions, parties and party systems, interest groups, systems of interest intermediation and civil society, the impact of European public policy and the emergence of a European common and foreign policy.