This book addresses and explains the divergent economic and political outcomes of the financial crisis in the eight European Union member states which needed a bailout program: Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Portugal, Romania and Spain. Looking at crisis management as a series of relationships where cooperation is essential, this book focuses on the essential role of trust during the process. It argues that the presence or absence of trust during the negotiation and implementation of the bailout program leads to self-reinforcing cycles of success and failure. The analysis of these eight countries also explores the institutional sources of trust – it shows that a commitment to limited government is associated with both economic success and resistance to populism. The final chapter considers the implications for the future of the EU and calls attention to the importance of strengthening domestic institutions in order to bridge the gap between concerns over moral hazard and expectations of solidarity.

This book addresses the challenges presented to the EU by an increasingly complex security environment. Through the interdisciplinary approach taken, researchers in economics, law and political science identify a range of problems relating to the multiple security threats that the EU faces, and present new means to address them within their respective fields of expertise. The contributions provide accessible and policy-relevant analyses of crucial challenges to the EU’s ability to function as a political union in the years ahead.

This is the first book in the Interdisciplinary European Studies collection. This volume provides an interdisciplinary perspective on trust in the EU from the vantage point of political science, law and economics. It applies insights from a number of different dimensions – political institutions, legal convergence in criminal and civil law, social trust, digitalization, the diffusion of political values and norms, monetary convergence and the legitimacy of political systems – to approach the highly complex issue of trust in the EU in a clear-sighted, relevant and insightful manner. Written by renowned experts in the field, the style is accessible and reader-friendly, yet concise, knowledgeable and thought-provoking. The individual chapters combine up-to-date research findings with reflections on on-going political debates and offer useful, concrete ideas on what steps the EU could take to address the challenge of trust. The book provides the reader with invaluable insights into how trust, or rather the lack of trust, poses a challenge to the future of the social, economic and political developments in the EU. It is a must-read for policy-makers, students and interested members of the public who feel concerned by the future of Europe.

The Routledge Handbook of Differentiation in the European Union offers an essential collection of groundbreaking chapters reflecting on the causes and consequences of this complex phenomenon. With contributions from key experts in this subfield of European Studies, it will become a key volume used for those interested in learning the nuts and bolts of differentiation as a mechanism of (dis)integration in the European Union, especially in the light of Brexit. Organised around five key themes, it offers an authoritative "encyclopaedia" of differentiation and addresses questions such as: How can one define differentiation in the European Union in the light of the most recent events? Does differentiation create more challenges or opportunities for the European Union? Is Europe moving away from an "ever closer Union" and heading towards an "ever more differentiated Union", especially as leading political figures across Europe favour the use of differentiation to reconcile divergences between member states? This handbook is essential reading and an authoritative reference for scholars, students, researchers and practitioners involved in, and actively concerned about, research in the study of European integration. As European differentiation is multifaceted and involves a wide range of actors and policies, it will be of further interest to those working on countries and/or in policy areas where differentiation is an increasingly relevant feature. The Introduction and chapters 13, 21, 30, and 35 of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.routledge.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the determinants of EU support between 2006 and 2015, and of electoral behavior during the European Parliament elections. In light of the Eurozone financial and debt crisis, it also examines how political and economic turbulences have affected EU citizens’ stance on democracy and their support for EU institutions. It explores measures taken in the context of the Euro crisis management and the reactions of EU citizens, in order to shed new light on the determinants and developments of EU support. The author highlights the heterogeneity of the developments between the member states and identifies social, political, and economic facets of the crisis that have changed the ways citizens form their political attitudes towards the EU. The book delivers a profound account of the Euro crisis, integrating approaches from political economy, psychology, sociology, and public opinion research. It will appeal to scholars and anyone interested in learning more about the declining citizen support in the EU and the heterogeneous developments in the member states, which may significantly endanger the long-term existence of the European Union.

Een studie over het 'nieuw bilateralisme' aan de hand van de ontwikkeling van de relatie tussen de EU en Thailand.

This book provides a unique and comprehensive overview of the European Union's many crisis management capacities and explains their origins.

The European Union seems to have rescued its single currency, but it has not yet put an end to the crisis. In this major new book, a group of fifteen international philosophers, economists, political scientists, sociologists, and legal experts compare the economic, political, constitutional, social, and cultural interpretations of the European crisis. They describe the challenges the EU faces in relation to legitimacy and democracy and address head-on the uncertainty over the future of Europe. The book considers different possible scenarios—from the Union's dissolution, with or without the continuation of the integration process, to its reinforcement through the building of a political union addressing the challenges of legitimacy, democracy and justice. Such a strengthened union could mark a new stage for democracy—not the democracy of ancient cities and modern states, but one convenient to the complex entities, neither national nor supra-national, of which the European Union, despite the crisis, is still the best modern example.

The EU and China are often characterised as parties whose bilateral political differences still remain too large to bridge, so that they have failed to convert rhetorical promises into tangible results of cooperation, particularly with regards to the field of international security. Yet in terms of their bilateral interaction on security risk management in Africa; EU and Chinese naval officers jointly brought down the number of successful Somali pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden and to a lesser extent were jointly involved in seeking a resolution to the lingering conflict in Darfur. This book asks how we can make sense as a whole of this relatively sudden shift in regards to the dealings between their respective officials on the topic of security risk management. It argues that the outcomes of Sino-European bilateral dealings on this topic are above all determined by the ability/inability of these officials to build political trust as a complex and cognitive social phenomenon. Consequently, the book applies an innovative conceptual framework on political trust to explain why EU and Chinese officials bridged their ‘endemic’ political differences to practically cooperate on Somali piracy but were unable to do so when it came to their interaction on Darfur. To conclude, it examines the longer term impact of this bilateral trust-building process by covering more recent examples of bilateral engagement in Libya and Mali and aims to show that although this trust-building process may be case specific, ramifications may go beyond the realm of their bilateral dealings on security matters in Africa, to impact wider issues of international security. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of African and Chinese politics, EU politics, security and maritime studies, and more broadly of international relations and to governmental actors.

“This fine team of academics moves beyond mere descriptions of capacities, structures and processes to explain the effectiveness of Civil Protection in the EU. With their exploration of trust as a key factor, they deliver the best book so far on this critical topic.”—Arjen Boin, Leiden University, the Netherlands “Grounded in unique and voluminous fieldwork within the EU’s nascent community of civil protection practitioners and mechanisms, this timely study shows us that interpersonal and professional trust rooted in collegiate relationships is pivotal for bridging the different policy styles embedded in member states’ administrative cultures and building much-needed cohesive, effective and resilient European crisis management capacity. A gem for crisis management and EU scholars alike.”—Paul ‘t Hart, Utrecht University and Netherlands School of Public Administration, the Netherlands The EU and its member states have committed themselves to the protection of their citizens, and a Europe that protects must be able to respond effectively when disaster strikes. Utilizing unique survey data and interviews in nineteen EU member states, this book treats civil protection and crisis management as crucial cases for investigating which factors—such as trust, public-administration culture, and public-administration structure—facilitate or hinder effective EU cooperation. In addition to investigating the main divides and unifying patterns of cooperation that exist among the EU member states, the authors combine knowledge from crisis management studies together with insights from public and social capital studies to examine to what extent so-called ‘software factors’, such as culture, trust, and norms, matter for achieving effective civil protection cooperation and crisis management.