European Parties and the European Integration Process, 1945-1992

The present volume brings together three different traditions of historical study: national politics, European integration, and political parties. Since the 1980s, there has been an enlargement of the scope of political history. This attempt to transcend national boundaries can intersect with the new strands of European integration history, paying much more attention to transnational perspectives and forces. The chapters comprised in this book attempt to forge a dialogue between these new methodologies and the study of political parties in manifold ways. Firstly, in the study of party foreign and European politics - how parties have perceived themselves as belonging not only to the national political game, but also to a wider transnational, and European one. Secondly, party history can transcend national boundaries through the study of international and European party cooperation. Thirdly, it can offer worthwhile avenues of study on how political families deal with European integration not along ideological cleavages but along national ones. This volume fills a crucial gap of European historiography by comparing parties' discourses/platforms/policies on European integration and by developing national, comparative and transnational approaches.

Lucia Bonfreschi, PhD, is assistant professor in political history at IMT-Lucca and adjunct professor at Luiss-Guido Carli University, Rome.
Giovanni Orsina, PhD, is professor of contemporary history, director of the Master in European Studies and deputy director of the School of Government at Luiss-Guido Carli University, Rome.
Antonio Varsori is full professor of history of international relations at the Department of Politics, Law and International Studies of the University of Padua. He is the chairman of the liaison committee of historians of Contemporay Europe at the European Commission and the editor of the journal Ventunesimo Secolo.

Contents: Giovanni Bernardini/Gabriele D-Ottavio: SPD and European Integration. From scepticism to pragmatism, from pragmatism to leadership, 1949-1979 - Christine Vodovar: The Impossible Third Force. Italian and French socialism and Europe, 1943-1963 - Kristian Steinnes: A Socialist Europe? Democratic Socialist Party Ideas and the Process of European Integration 1960-1973 - Sara Lamberti: The Dutch Labour Party in the 1970s. Calling for European Integration with a Human Face - Maria Elena Cavallaro: The Europeanism of the PSOE from the Anti-Francoist Choice to the Social Democratic Transformation of the Party (1977-1992) - Laura Grazi: In Search of Supranational Cooperation. The Socialist Group in the European Parliament and the EEC-s Southern Enlargement - Alessandro Brogi: «Westpolitik». Eurocommunism, and the Evolution of the Western European Communists- Positions toward European Integration - Valentine Lomellini: The PCI and the European Integration from Eurocommunism to Berlinguer-s Death - Roberto Colozza: Political History of a Cultural Heritage. The Ex-«Azionisti» and the Idea of Europe in Italian Political Parties - Giulia Bentivoglio: «Our sole commitment is to negotiate; no more, no less». The Conservative Party and Britain-s Entry into the EEC - Lucia Bonfreschi: The Gaullist Party and Europe. Political Divisions and Strategies for the Reacquisition of Power, 1976-1992 - Michele Marchi: The French centrists and the European elections of 1979-1989. Playing the «European card» to avoid bipartisanship? - Beata Kosowska-G-stö: «From Mistrust to Cooperation». Relations between the Christian Democratic and Conservative Parties at the European Level in the 1970s-1990s - Giovanni Orsina: Internationalism and Europeanism in the Ideology of European Liberalism, 1945-1989 - Guido Thiemeyer: Transnational Cooperation of Liberal Parties in Europe, 1945-1976 - Simone Paoli: Euroright. The Extreme Right in the European Integration Process, 1979-1989 - Robin de Bruin: «Europe» as a «Hothouse» for Dutch Domestic Politics, 1948-1967 - Carlos López Gómez: Nationalism and Europeanism. Political Catalanism and the Spain-Europe Relationship, 1949-1986 - Massimo Piermattei: The Celtic Tiger Prepares to Roar. Irish Parties, Leaders and European Integration, 1961-1992 - S-awomir -ukasiewicz: Central European émigré Party and the European integration - Sandro Guerrieri: The Genesis of a Supranational Representation. The Formation of Political Groups at the Common Assembly of the ECSC, 1952-1958.