Europe's Hidden Federalism

"The study of federalism is finally coming back to EU studies. Contrary to mainstream’s approaches that continue to stress the sui generis or exceptional nature of the EU, Kovačević’s book merits the highest consideration for the successful attempt to conceptualize the EU through the perspective of comparative federalism." - Sergio Fabbrini, LUISS Guido Carli, Rome.

"This book gives an exhaustive and critical evaluation of the situation of the European Union. It compares the achievement of the EU with the achievements of other federal experiences (USA, Swiss, Yugoslavia, but also Germany) and introduces the interesting idea that it is useful to compare also with unsuccessful federations such as Yugoslavia.The author succeeds in presenting the construction of the EU in the light of the federal theory and his critical methodological claim against the mainstream of political science leads him to rehabilitate the field of political philosophy and legal theory with true success." - Olivier Beaud, Univ. of Pantheon-Assas (Paris II)

"This is an outstanding monograph that gives a most interesting and creative view on federalism and will be of interest to scholars in political theory and practitioners in EU issues across all EU countries." - Thomas Fleiner, Prof. Emeritus, University Fribourg.

"The book focuses on the idea that EU can learn from successful federal countries, like the USA or Switzerland, but it must do so from the perspectives of political science and political philosophy together. In the year of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome (1957), this book offers a lucid analysis of the turning point at which the EU now finds itself. If the EU’s "hidden" (or not so hidden) federalism is clear to most scholars and analysts following the Maastricht Treaty, Kovacevic’s work asks whether it is advisable for the EU to break its baroque institutional structure at a moment when there is structural democratic crisis of legitimacy in the EU. Dissolution is not just a remote threat, but a potential outcome of the EU’s present-day "systemic crisis". The time of building Europe without the Europeans is over." - Ferran Requejo, Professor of Political Science, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), Catalonia.

"Kovacevic makes an important contribution to the literature on federalism and the EU by introducing the element of crisis when both subjects are at stake. The author proceeds theoretically driven and discusses widespread federalist theories but also less popular thoughts on the topic. Furthermore, he takes a comprehensive perspective and refers to structure, process, and political culture when discussing hidden federalism within the EU. In addition, the analysis is not cross-sectional but longitudinal, and, thus, sensitive to historic developments of all cases analysed." - Alexander Arens, University of Bern, in the Swiss Political Science Review.