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Abstract:      The concept of 'civil society' has been rediscovered in contemporary discourses concerning the relationship between democracy and governance. This paper analyses this rediscovery in the more specific context of the European Commission's 2001 White Paper on European Governance. However, processes of transnationalisation, governmentalisation and autonomisation may compromise much of the potential of 'European civil society' as an intermediating sphere of social action. By reinforcing these processes, the White Paper undermines the normative claims made for a civil society premised upon the voluntary nature of its associative forms and its distinctive open, communicative and deliberative rationality.

Die Vierteljahreszeitschrift integration richtet sich an alle, die sich in Wissenschaft, Bildung, Politik, Administration und in den Medien mit europäischen Fragen beschäftigen. Sie ist ein theoriegeleitetes und politikbezogenes interdisziplinäres Forum zu Grundsatzfragen der europäischen Integration. Aktuelle Probleme der Europapolitik werden aus politischer und akademischer Perspektive diskutiert.

This article demonstrates that public attitudes towards EU enlargement are strongly affected by exposure to the mass media. It reveals `priming' effects by showing that media exposure affects the standards by which individuals evaluate the accession of potential candidate countries. To gain a more refined understanding about media effects on enlargement attitudes, we analytically separate three different factors that underlie EU enlargement support for a given candidate country: its economic performance, its state of democracy and its perceived cultural `match' with the EU. Employing an experimental design, we probe the media-induced effects of these factors on EU enlargement attitudes. Key Words: enlargement • experiment • mass media • public opinion

How effective and relevant is European Union political conditionality for the promotion of democracy in third countries? This article reports the results of a panel study of 36 countries of the East European and Mediterranean neighbourhood of the EU for the years 1988—2004. The analysis shows robust and strong effects of EU political conditionality on democracy in the neighbouring countries if the EU offers a membership perspective in return for political reform. Absent the offer of membership, however, EU incentives such as partnership and cooperation do not reliably promote democratic change. The analysis controls for economic development and transnational exchanges as two alternative potential causes of democratization. Although economic and geographical factors have an impact on democratization in the European neighbourhood as well, EU political conditionality remains a significant influence. Key Words: conditionality • democratization • Eastern Europe • European Union • Mediterranean countries

Abstract The debate about the legitimacy of the EU and the possibilities for its democratization has addressed so far only rarely the question of the role of the media. An instrumental approach prevails towards the media, acknowledging that the so-called gap between the EU and its citizens is grounded in a communication deficit and that the EU should therefore strive towards a higher legitimacy in terms of public accountability, openness and participation, in other words of democracy. The article discusses these technical aspects of 'public-sphere building from above' in relation to the systematic constraints on mediatization that result from the inertia of the existing (national) media spheres. On the basis of this, an alternative understanding of mediatization and its ambivalent effects on the legitimacy of the EU will be developed. The proposal is that European public sphere research should focus on the more active role of the media as an independent variable that affects institutional choices and processes. Empirical results from comparative content analyses are discussed, which illustrate to what extent media have become an enabling and/or constraining factor on European integration.

Abstract[From the introduction] The foregoing summary of current events indicates the complexity of the situation the EU is dealing with on the Balkans. Currently, it seems that, apart from Croatia and partly Montenegro and Macedonia, the countries are still far away from any meaningful prospects regarding European integration. A detailed overview of all of the intricacies and activities of the European Union’s foreign policy in the Western Balkans is beyond the scope of this paper. Instead, the following discussion addresses the main institutional and legal issues with regard to the process of integration for the countries of the Western Balkans. This process, the Stabilization and Association Process (SAP), is a precondition to enlargement procedures. In the light of the current events, the final part addresses the particularities of the role foreseen for the EU in Kosovo.

How effective and relevant is European Union political conditionality for the promotion of democracy in third countries? This article reports the results of a panel study of 36 countries of the East European and Mediterranean neighbourhood of the EU for the years 1988—2004. The analysis shows robust and strong effects of EU political conditionality on democracy in the neighbouring countries if the EU offers a membership perspective in return for political reform. Absent the offer of membership, however, EU incentives such as partnership and cooperation do not reliably promote democratic change. The analysis controls for economic development and transnational exchanges as two alternative potential causes of democratization. Although economic and geographical factors have an impact on democratization in the European neighbourhood as well, EU political conditionality remains a significant influence

This article demonstrates that public attitudes towards EU enlargement are strongly affected by exposure to the mass media. It reveals `priming' effects by showing that media exposure affects the standards by which individuals evaluate the accession of potential candidate countries. To gain a more refined understanding about media effects on enlargement attitudes, we analytically separate three different factors that underlie EU enlargement support for a given candidate country: its economic performance, its state of democracy and its perceived cultural `match' with the EU. Employing an experimental design, we probe the media-induced effects of these factors on EU enlargement attitudes.

Tells the story of European integration from its modern origins in the 1940s to the challenges of the new century. The author captures the dynamics of the evolving debates about European unity and examines the factors that led to today's union.

In this first book-length treatment of integration theory for many years, Ben Rosamond provides an accessible and stimulating critical introduction to the full range of classical and contemporary perspectives. The book explains the centrality of theoretical work to the study of integration and the EU and carefully locates different theories within their wider intellectual and "real world" contexts. This thoroughly researched book engages with the key debates that have arisen from theoretical deliberations about European integration. It develops its own distinctive contribution, emphasizing the importance of "sociology of knowledge" questions when evaluating integration theory and stressing the continued significance of international theory to the study of the EU.

Synopsis This text offers a comprehensive overview of the content and development of major theoretical approaches to European integration, as well as critical assessment of current theoretical debates, and an assessment of their value in conducting empirical research. Chapters offer insights into the development, achievements and problems of the respective approaches and follow a set pattern which allows for easy comparision between approaches based on 'bestcases' and 'testcases'. Written by major scholars, it will provide a state-of-the-art handbook of integration theory.

Recently, 'new modes of governance' based on voluntary performance standards, rather than compulsory regulation, have gained salience in European Union governance. Can these 'new modes of governance' offer a credible solution to the challenges faced by EU policy making? We argue that a critical appraisal is difficult when it is based a) on the scarce empirical evidence, or b) the programmatic pronouncements of policy makers. We suggest instead c) assessing the potential of new governance in the light of theoretical approaches to the EU polity. While current theories of European governance shed some light on the challenges to be addressed by new governance, we argue that the theory of democratic experimentalism makes it possible to better identify the potential and the problems of new EU governance. This theoretical perspective suggests, first, that coordination by voluntary performance standards can lead to more effective rules and more opportunties for political participation, second, that the scope of this mode of governance in the EU is not confined to cases which are explicitly flagged as 'new governance', and third, that one of the main problems is how a voluntary mode of governance can coexist with compulsory regulation.

This Living Review deals with the division of competences between the EU and its member states in a multilevel political system. The article summarises research on the relations between the EU and the national and sub-national levels of the member states. It provides an overview on normative and theoretical concepts and empirical research. From the outset, European integration was about the transfer of powers from the national to the European level, which evolved as explicit bargaining among governments or as an incremental drift. This process was reframed with the competence issue entering the agenda of constitutional policy. It now concerns the shape of the European multilevel polity as a whole, in particular the way in which powers are allocated, delimited and linked between the different levels. The article is structured as follows: First of all, normative theories of a European federation are discussed. Section 2 deals with different concepts of federalism and presents approaches of the economic theory of federalism in the context of the European polity. The normative considerations conclude with a discussion of the subsidiarity principle and the constitutional allocation of competences in the European Treaties. Section 3 covers the empirical issue of how to explain the actual allocation of competences (scope and type) between levels. Integration theories are presented here only in so far as they explain the transfer of competence from the national to the European level or the limits of this centralistic dynamics.

Dieser Sammelband gibt einen Überblick über die 20 zentralsten Politikfelder der EU – wie z.B. die Agrarpolitik, die Strukturfonds, den Verbraucherschutz, die Umweltpolitik. Für diese Politikfelder wird jeweils ein Abriss über die historische Entwicklung gegeben und auf die wesentlichen Steuerungsmechanismen und die maßgeblichen Akteure bei der Politikformulierung und Implementation eingegangen. Dabei wird jeweils die konkrete Ausprägung und Bedeutung des Mehrebenensystem thematisiert, das EU-Politiken in unterschiedlicher Weise kennzeichnet.

In Kosovo: What Everyone Needs to Know , Tim Judah provides a straight-forward guide to the complicated place that is Kosovo. Judah, who has spent years covering the region, offers succinct, penetrating answers to a wide range of questions: Why is Kosovo important? Who are the Albanians? Who are the Serbs? Why is Kosovo so important to Serbs? What role does Kosovo play in the region and in the world? Judah reveals how things stand now and presents the history and geopolitical dynamics that have led to it. The most important of these is the question of the right to self-determination, invoked by the Kosovo Albanians, as opposed to right of territorial integrity invoked by the Serbs.