Towards a Federal Europe

An excellent new analysis of federalism and the EU that investigates their mutual impact. It shows how scholars of comparative politics increasingly include the EU among their cases when investigating the impact of federalism on key issues such as policy making. The last decade saw a new wave of scholarly publications hit the shores as research on federalism and on the EU came together. These emerging strands of research genuinely enrich our understanding of the EU and its politics. Despite this recent wave, the topic of federalism and the EU is still extremely fruitful. This volume contributes to the continuing debate at a moment in time when the EU is undergoing profound changes. It is structured around four interrelated dimensions: - the constitutional/theoretical dimension - the institutional vision - the party/citizens dimension - the policy dimension. This structure allows the reader to consecutively "funnel down" from the more theoretical and abstract levels to the more concrete policy oriented level.

Alexander H. Trechsel is Professor of political science and holder of the Swiss Chair on Federalism and Democracy at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. He is also co-director of the Research and Documentation Centre on Direct Democracy (c2d) and director of the e-Democracy Center (e-DC), both located at the University of Geneva. He is the co-author of Swiss politics. Continuity and Change in a Consensus-Democracy (with Hanspeter Kriesi, Cambridge University Press, in press) and recent articles in European Union Politics, European Journal of Political Research, Democratization, and Journal of European Public Policy.

Introduction 1. How to Federalise the European Union ... and Why Bother 2. The Constitutional Scheme of Federalism 3. Between Globalisation and Regionalisation 4. Implementing (and Radicalising) Art. I-47.4 of the Constitution: Is the Addition of Some (Semi-) Direct Democracy to the Nascent Consociational European Federation just Swiss Folklore? 5. Federalism and the European Party System 6. Federalism in the European Union - The View From Below (If There Is Such a Thing) 7. The European Union and Cybercrime: Insights from Comparative Federalism 8. Economic Logic or Political Logic? Economic Theory, Federal Theory and EMU 9. Bypasses to a Social Europe - Lessons from Federal Experience 10. Towards a Stable Federal Finalité? Forms and Arenas of Institutional and National Balances in the Constitutional Treaty for Europe