Finn Laursen

The Political Economy of European Integration Finn Laursen

The study of European integration produced much scholarly debate in the 1950s and '60s. The following two decades saw few works on European integration that included more elaborate discussions of theory and methodology; most studies in that period were fairly descriptive. In recent years there has been renewed theoretical interest in European integration. This book, however, is one of the first to discuss and apply various political-economy approaches explicitly to integration, including classical integration theory and modern public choice theories. Areas covered include common policies and decision making, as well as the external relations of the EU. The influence of the European Parliament, the concept of subsidiarity, trade policy, Economic and Monetary Union, reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, relations with EFTA and Eastern European countries, as well as enlargement, are all discussed. Audience: Of interest to both scholars and policy makers concerned with these issues.