商品詳細

This book presents European Republicanism as an alternative, refreshing approach to explain European Integration. Current theories of European integration, such as federalism, neo-functionalism and liberal intergovernmentalism are first presented with their strengths and weaknesses. It is then argued that the combination of republican theory with public good theory, the res publica of public goods, could better explain European integration. Public good theory has, however, to be adopted in order to make it applicable to European republicanism. The last part demonstrates how this new framework can influence further academic debates, such as on monetary integration, externalities of a common European market and the driving force of European integration. In offering a new starting point to explain and legitimize European integration, the author argues that the republican approach allows the inconsistencies of sovereignty and federalism to be bypassed. The book explains how the modelling of economic problems as externalities is a more adequate solution for European integration than modelling economic problems as inter-dependencies. Lastly, it is maintained that as the republican approach does not follow a pure economic logic, there remains space for political considerations and motivations. In this topical and interdisciplinary book, the author combines many important strings of European integration theory, history, economics and political sciences, which are clearly brought together into a coherent analytical discourse. Its strength is the interdisciplinary interaction between politics and economics, as well as theoretical and practical issues which are of high relevance for public debate in Europe. This book will be of interest to scholars and students interested in economic integration, as well as history and political philosophy.