Economic-union Books

A think piece by a mid-level writer in her glory days.

Greenwood and Aspinwall join the growing number of authors dealing with interest groups on the European level. In their introduction they provide a useful overview of the EU's lobbying system. They argue that the system of interest representation is similar to the way interests interact with Washington. Although business interests dominate in Brussels (63% of all interest groups) non-profit groups do have a chance of exercising influence.

As Cram points out in her contribution, the EU institutions themselves have encouraged lobbying and are active actors in the policy process and not just passive providers of a framework. They bring particular interest groups together and create policy networks. An interesting deviation from the usual emphasis on business groups is Young's discussion of consumer interest organisations. Similarly, Webster's analysis of the strategies of environmental groups offers interesting insights.

All in all, the book presents an informative and balanced view of the challenges that private interest - both business groups and non-profit associations- face when acting at the EU level.

This is an informative book about the making of industrial policies for high technology industries in the European Union (EU) in the late 1990s. Lembke chooses three cases for detailed analysis: the GALILEO satellite navigation system, UMTS wireless systems, and DAB digital radio. The author demonstrates that no industrial policies are likely to be forthcoming for industries, like digital radio, with low lobbying strength and low potential payoffs for political entrepreneurs (Table 8.5 on p. 280). In contrast, GALILEO satellite navigation benefited from the desire of industry representatives and political actors to have a European alternative to the American GPS system; while UMTS benefited from the desire of Europeans to build on the success of the earlier GSM cellular phone systems without ruining their chances for marketing third generation phones in the rest of the world, particularly in Asia.

European solidarity was helped by the dominance of the US in GPS systems and by the US company, Qualcomm, in CDMA (code division multiple access) telephone technology. European solidarity was hindered by the existence of a competing European standard for digital audio that came out of the digital video broadcasting (DVB) effort after 1993 and the desire of EU officials to avoid another disaster like the one that occurred in the early 1990s with HD-MAC (the Europeans' first and failed attempt to institute a standard for high definition television).

I was struck by the importance of military/strategic considerations in Lembke's account of the support for the GALILEO system and of the creation of an anti-US coalition of European and Japanese forces in UMTS phone systems. Regional pride over the success of GSM played an important role not just in the UMTS debate but in the rejection of more parochial approaches such as that represented by the advocates of DAB.

The Europeans clearly changed their approach to industrial policy in the 1990s. As Lembke argues correctly (p.282), there is "a new form of critical industry support in the `information age' which contrasts with the subsidy-based industry support promulgated by the first wave of strategic trade theorists in the 1980s and 1990s." This new support tended to focus on global standards-setting processes based on consensus building among scientists and engineers (including some non-Europeans) on key technological questions instead of the imposition of regional standards to insulate regional firms from international competition.

As I read the DAB case, I had the impression the EU had made the right decision in not imposing a standard and in not backing the technology that came out of the Eureka research program. Here the opponents made a good case for the need not to foreclose innovation by prematurely imposing a regional standard. The claim by supporters that DAB would help to revive consumer electronics in Europe was not credible.

Overall, I found the author's descriptions to be interesting and accurate and his explanations for outcomes to be convincing. The subject matter is complex. It is impossible to describe what is in the book without using a lot of acronyms. There are many alternative technologies, numerous and diverse social actors, and the usual complications introduced by the interventions of individuals. For example, in one of the cases (DAB) a change in the composition of European commissioners was a crucial determinant of the outcome. This was sometimes a difficult book to read, and it would have benefited from better copy editing, but it is strong on details and reports many important and original findings based on interviews with key players.

Peterson and Bomberg provide a comprehensive but readable introduction to EU decision making.

They distinguish between three levels of decision-making. At the so-called "super-systemic" level history making decisions about the EU system are being made. Examples of this kind are the Maastricht or Amsterdam treaties. At the systemic level, the EU institutions (Council, Parliament, Commission, Court of Justice) interact and decide directives. Details of such directives are worked out at the sub-systemic level where the committees of these various institutions are active.

The authors also spend some time explaining the basic makeup of these EU institutions.

They then concentrate on the most important policy areas. All in all, this book can be recommended both to beginners and further advanced students of European integration.

Driven to Change: The European Union's Enlargement Viewed from the East edited by Antoaneta L. Dimitrova (Manchester University Press) (Hardcover) Will joining the European Union help achieve prosperity, stability and democracy in Central and Eastern Europe? This book addresses this question by analysing, from the perspective of new members and current candidates, how the European Union has approached this enlargement, what conditions and criteria have been set and how these have influenced post-communist transformations in a number of areas from constitutional changes to economic and financial reforms and public administrations.
More specifically, the book shows how, in its enlargement to the East, the European Union has tried to guide the post-communist states of Central and Eastern Europe towards new institutions and changing rules. In addressing the little explored theme of the link between post-communist transformations and enlargement, the book presents the effects of enlargement governance extended by the EU on domestic processes of reform and transformation in various stages of advancement. While in some cases these effects are extensive, in others domestic reform has already advanced in such a way as to minimise the impact of enlargement preparation.
With its rich empirical overview of the reform challenges to various sectors, the book acquaints those interested in the impact of enlargement on the domestic arenas of the new members with a number of scenarios of the interaction of EU rules with post-communist reform. In contrast to other books on enlargement, this book relies primarily on the perspective of scholars and practitioners from Central and Eastern Europe to illustrate the importance of the accession process to reform in their native country.

Jane Dawson is a wonderful Professor and also writer. She explains issues is a very clear manner and at the same time makes it interesting to read. She has personal experience in the Former USSR and she also was able to get access to information that normally isn't released. This book was one of my texts in an environmental class. It was the best class and the book open up a new area of Poli. Sci. and the Environment that isn't expolored much. It's a must have book.

This collection of sixteen papers offer an international comparative analysis of economic growth and change. A broad range of factors are analyzed in their contribution to economic growth. Issues such as sovereignity, economic, social and political institutions, research and development, inequality and convergence, human capital are considered in their relation to economic growth and change. It is especially interesting for those interested in patterns and determinants of economic growth in industrialized countries.

I'm an undergraduate student in Finance and Economics. I picked up this book for a term paper for my Public Economics class.

If there's one thing to say about De Grauwe's book is that it seemed very useful, down to earth, in contrast to other economics books I've read. The concepts covered in the book were explained very clearly, and for someone interested in the area, the theories seemed ready for use for application in understanding the important issues of monetary integration.

Whether there are flaws in the theory are--honestly--beyond my grasp; I'd have to read more. The book seems written and revised fairly enough and hasn't received negative comments from the faculty at my university. If someone else has a contrary opinion, I'm sure it'd help for people to hear.

Check the sample pages if you want to see if this book would be good for you.

I use this book as part of the literature for a graduate course on EU Enlargement. I find it well-written, informative and I especially like the historical context, of how the 'rules for EC enlargement' were created over time: It shows that many problems and issues of current EU Enlargement were issues and problems of previous enlargements as well. I also liked the clear explanation of the strong linkages between widening and deepening of EU integration over time, and how each enlargement more or less strongly affected the existing EC MS. The book is not very technical and I'd definitely recommended it for students of political economy, economics and political science!

I used this book in a graduate course that I taught on European Union Enlargement with the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). I found the collection of papers on the changing nature of trade flows betweeen EU and CEECs (toward higher quality products), foreign direct investment (FDI) flows, industrial restructuring of CEEC industry on sectoral levels and how that ties in with restructuring of EU industries informative and useful. The political economy papers I also found interesting.

I especially like the point the editors make that, viewed in a dynamic context, CEEC industries could be integrated with EU industries in a longer-term perspecive. The idea is to use each others' competitive advantages rather than considering the CEEC industries as low-cost competition, and setting restructuring of both EU and CEEC industries in a - in principle at least- mutually beneficial dynamic process. Of course there are a number of real dangers in this process (creating dual economies and short-term unemployment, increasing rather than diminishing sectoral and regional development gaps etc). Clearly developments are uneven and not smooth and some of the papers clearly point that out, but I think the basic approach makes a lot of sense and reinforces the integrationist ideas of e.g. the European Commission. My only problem with the book is the rather old data that are sometimes used, which in this context is even worse since in a situation of such massive and fast restructuring the relevant data 'age' even faster than normal, but i know that to some extent that is unavoidable.

Good reference book and well-written, avoiding technical jargon.