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European Politics: The Making of Democratic States

Walter C. Opello, Jr., and Katherine A. R. Opello
European Politics: The Making of Democratic States
ISBN: 978-1-58826-563-0
$65.00
ISBN: 978-1-58826-589-0
$26.00
ISBN: 978-1-62637-271-9
$26.00
2008/331 pages/LC: 2008010758
"Comprehensive, accessible, and interesting.... The focus on the nation-state and its development is excellent."—Joel D. Wolfe, University of Cincinnati

DESCRIPTION

This innovative text explores the nature of European politics in the context of the origin and institutional development of the European state system.  Underlying the analysis are a series of questions:
  • How did the state, the central element of contemporary European political life, emerge from and eventually triumph over the bewildering multiplicity of competing forms of rule that existed in Europe after the collapse of the Roman Empire?
  • What explains the development of the common methods for managing their economies, societies, and politics found in contemporary European states?
  • What are the nature and significance of the integration of European states into the European Union?

The authors systematically cover the historical background of the European democratic nation-state; its governing institutions and practices; current efforts to unify the continent; and the challenges posed by circumstances ranging from EU membership to internal ethnonationalist movements to the extensive migration of people within and into Europe. In the concluding chapter, they consider the future of the European state in light of its history, current domestic political realities, and the broad forces of globalization.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Walter C. Opello, Jr., is professor emeritus of political science at the State University of New York, Oswego. He is coauthor of The Nation-State and Global Order, now in its second edition, and Portugal: From Monarchy to Pluralist Democracy. Katherine A. R. Opello is assistant professor of political science at CUNY-Kingsborough Community College. She is author of Gender Quotas, Parity Reform and Political Parties in France.

CONTENTS

  • Introducing European Politics.
  • THE FORMATION OF THE EUROPEAN NATION-STATE.
  • The Disintegration of the Roman Imperial State.
  • The Development of the Monarchical State in the West.
  • Nationalizing the Monarchical State.
  • The Emergence of the Nation-State in the East.
  • THE CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN DEMOCRATIC NATION-STATE.
  • The Structures of Government.
  • Political Participation.
  • Providing for the Well-Being of the Nation.
  • UNIFYING EUROPE.
  • From Military Competition to Economic Cooperation.
  • Governing the European Union.
  • Enlarging Europe's Commonwealth.
  • THE FUTURE OF THE EUROPEAN POLITICS.
  • The Endurance—and Proliferation—of the European Nation-State.