The European Commission of the Twenty-First Century
Andrew Thompson author John Peterson author Liesbet Hooghe author Renaud Dehousse author Michael W Bauer author Hussein Kassim author Sara Connolly author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:27th Jun '13
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
The European Commission is arguably the world's most powerful international administration. It plays a central role in the political system of the European Union. The Commission is a permanent presence in the life of the member states, but its influence is felt far beyond their borders. Viewed historically as the motor of European integration, the Commission is the subject of intense controversy. It is portrayed frequently as technocratic, monolithic, and unaccountable, but also as fragmented and weakly led. According to accepted wisdom, it is populated by career bureaucrats, who want only to expand the competencies of the Union and therefore their own power. This book tests these views. It asks: Who are the people who work for the organization? What are their educational and professional backgrounds? What do officials believe about the role of the Commission in the EU today and whether the Union should have more or less power? What leads them to choose to pursue a career in the Commission, and how do they navigate its complexities? How does the Barroso Commission compare to previous Commissions? How harmonious are relations between cabinets and the services? What has been the impact on the Commission of reform and of the 'big bang' enlargement? Co-authored by an international team of researchers, this book draws on original data from the largest attitudinal survey ever conducted by independent researchers inside the Commission, as well as a structured programme of interviews with senior officials. It provides an authoritative account of the European Commission of the twenty-first century.
This large volume -- an impressive joint research effort -- combines many insights into politicoadministrative theory with a broad-based questionnaire to a targeted sample of some 4000 out of some 12,00014,000 officials. * Jan-Erik Lane, Political Studies Review *
The European Commission has often been misrepresented by pundits, politicians, and scholars. This rigorous, dispassionate, and thorough new work finally gives us the accurate, comparative, and complex picture that we have long needed. We learn about who works in the Commission, what they do, how they work together, and how the Commission has changed in response to recent organizational reforms and in the world around it. This is a new starting point for those who need to know about the institutions of the European Union. * George Ross, ad personam Chaire Jean Monnet, Université de Montréal, Morris Hillquit Professor in Labor and Social Thought, Emeritus, Brandeis University *
The European Commission of the Twenty-First Century is the most comprehensive and sophisticated examination of the Commission available in the literature. This book makes a major advance in the study of the European Union and its governance capacity. Even scholars and practitioners who believe they know the Commission will gain important insights from this volume. * B. Guy Peters, Maurice Falk Professor of American Government, University of Pittsburgh *
The European Commission in Question team has had unparalleled access to administrative officials. They have used the survey and interview material exceptionally skilfully and effectively to produce an impressive account of the Commission. They sometimes challenge, sometimes support, sometimes qualify received wisdom about how the Commission works. They also make huge fresh advances in explaining the behaviour of its officials. The book is a landmark in developing our understanding of how policy-making bureaucracies work and how such bureaucracies should be studied. * Professor Edward C. Page, Sidney and Beatrice Webb Professor of Public Policy, London School of Economics *
Based on the information gathered from a survey and interviews with more than 2000 Commission officials, this book offers a detailed and stimulating portrait of a unique institution that represents a clear innovation in Europe's political organization. * Morten Egeberg, Professor of Public Policy and Administration, Department of Political Science and ARENA - Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo *
added substantially to our knowledge about the only supranational executive in the world. * Morten Egeberg, Public Administration *
ISBN: 9780199599523
Dimensions: 235mm x 162mm x 29mm
Weight: 750g
400 pages