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Chapter 2 examines the claim that mainstream interpretations of political organization and governing, their basic assumptions, conceptual language, and theoretical ideas, developed in the context of the sovereign state are outdated in the context of the emerging European polity and a globalized world. The chapter explores what new insights studies of recent European experiments in political integration through institution building and polity formation have delivered back to institutional analysis and to political science at large. This long chapter first attends to the shifting fortunes of institutionalism in political science over the last sixty years, starting with the behavioural revolution's criticism of the formal-legal analysis of political institutions as a ‘typical European way’ of looking at politics, and ending up in a cacophony of new institutionalisms. Then an organization theory-based institutional approach is presented, before the next three sections explore possible theoretical ideas, empirical insights, and agenda-setting effects in terms of bringing up some fundamental issues and enduring controversies in the study of political organization and government. In the concluding section ten lessons in political organization and governing through institution building are outlined.

The future of European integration will not be decided by Intergovernmental Conferences. Political integration is a social process that can best be analysed by taking a bottom‐up approach. We have to explore the societal forces that shape the living constitution of the EU and contribute to the emergence of a European political space. The chapter presents the theoretical argument and empirical findings on the basis of own research. Investigation of the involvement of regions and interest groups in EU affairs provides strong evidence that the EU is a political region in the strict sense. For a multitude of actors, it is a privileged arena for pursuing their interests. By their acceptance and support, transnational problem‐solving strategies become a shared concept of governance. Nevertheless, the Europeanization of belief systems and of political organization still has a strong national bias. The EU will not become a substitute for the nation‐state but will remain a ‘Europe with states’.

This concluding chapter examines the use that is made in the book of institutionalist theory to address the question of European integration, a use that is described as not typical in the study of the European Union, which is usually approached via international relations and integration theory. Issues that result from taking this institutional approach (i.e. analysing European political integration as institutionalization rather than as international relations) are briefly discussed, before going on to see how the Europe of the last half of the twentieth century has provided social scientists with rich opportunities for evaluating how new political systems evolve and emerge. Some of the aspects examined are: the concept of institutions; the impact of institutions; feedback effects (feedback loops liking actors to organizations, to institutions, and back again); institutional coherence; institutions and society; and the demand for, and supply of, institutions.

The creation of the European Union, and the associated process of economic, political, and social integration that has accompanied it, has changed the nature of nation state and subnational politics as it had been known for at least two centuries. This chapter starts by reviewing three of the models that have been used to conceptualize the different ways in which EU integration has occurred . The state-centred, supranational and multilevel governance models. Next it offers a conceptualization of Europeanization. In the following three sections (Subnational Government in the EU Context; EU Regional Policy and Subnational Government; and The Operation of EU Regional Policy) it goes on to evaluate some of the changes that have occurred, which have resulted particularly in changing forms of subnational politics within the European Union. Most specifically it examines the extent to which the essential distinction between northern and southern European styles of local politics is being undermined by the process of European integration and policy Europeanization. The chapter concludes by evaluating the extent to which ideas such as variable geometry and multilevel governance remain useful concepts in aiding understanding of the processes of change through which EU territorial politics are currently passing.

This chapter considers the interrelated processes of economic and political integration in Europe. It first notes a case—the economic theory of customs unions—in which the very distinctions made and concepts created for the purpose of analyzing the economics of integration have implications that throw light on the politics of the process. The chapter then discusses situations where economic and political phenomena are perceived to have analogical structures. In such cases, exploring the analogy can be conducive to a better understanding of both phenomena involved. Though the chapter notes that the major contributions economists can make to an understanding of the politics of integration fall within the aforementioned statements, it also proposes a third category of useful interaction between economics and politics: the transfer of concepts and modes of analysis originally elaborated for the purpose of understanding the economy to the political terrain.

This chapter discusses the political integration of immigrant groups. Entry into the inner precincts of power is a paramount indicator of the overall inclusion of newcomer groups. Indeed, the ability of politicians from immigrant backgrounds to be elected to office is the gold standard for political inclusion, bringing rewards of societal power and a voice in political decisions. The chapter then provides data on the success of immigrant-origin groups in winning positions in local, regional, and national legislatures in the six countries of this book's study; probes the factors that explain the differences in electoral representation; and considers whether, and to what degree, convergences in national laws and policies have reduced the importance of national differences in political integration and may continue to do so in the future.

This chapter discusses the future prospects for Muslims' political and social integration. A number of the social, cultural, and political adjustments that will characterize Europe in coming generations are already under way, although often the results are not visible to the naked eye. This chapter examines the pre-electoral political behavior and earliest known voting preferences and demographic future of the postcolonial—and post-guestworker—Muslim minorities of Europe. It argues that the most serious threats to successful emancipation—violent extremism among Muslims and right-wing nativism among “host societies”—may ultimately be weakened by a confluence of demographic trends and old-fashioned integration processes.

This chapter discusses the level of political integration displayed by the Danish Muslims engaged in the 2005/2006 cartoons controversy. Conceptualising political integration as a multi-dimensional phenomenon distinguishing three aspects of political integration – a) political trust in democratic institutions, b) adherence to liberal-democratic values, and c) political participation in the polis – the article investigates the degree of political integration of Danish Muslims against a unique database on political claims-making during the Danish cartoons controversy. In contrast to the widespread public perception of the controversy, the article argues that the Danish Muslims involved in public claims-making displayed a considerable degree of political integration. The chapter argues that Danish Muslims actually demonstrated considerable trust in democratic institutions, relying mainly on procedural forms of claims-making and turning to transnationalisation of the issue only as a last resort. Furthermore, it is argued that the claims-making of the involved Danish Muslims revealed alternative interpretations of fundamental liberal-democratic values, but significant adherence to the basic principles. Finally, the chapter argues that the level of political participation of Danish Muslims was particularly high during the cartoons controversy and that this high level of political claims-making and mobilisation should be understood as active citizenship rather than ‘cultural backlash’.

This chapter evaluates the influence of the national minority discourse on political integration and considers the possibilities of de facto co-nation sovereignty. The analysis reveals that the politics of integration appears open to democratic articulations, not only from the members of the European Parliament but also from co-nations seeking empowerment through the Committee of the Regions (CoR). The chapter explains that with the right of recourse to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) amounting to de facto recognition of the CoR as an European Union institution, the co-nations who are members of the CoR have indirectly been granted de facto recognition as international political players.

This chapter examines the role of the business of politics and the business of politics in creating regional diversity or unity in Great Britain. Despite the many differences among the British nation-states of England, Wales, and Scotland, political integration was well-advanced. A century of democratization did not lead to emergence of separate political parties and party politics was British politics. There were no successful or significant English, Welsh or Scottish parties.

This chapter asks the book’s central question: what causes state to politically unify voluntarily? It defines the concept of voluntary political unions and what cases fit this scope. Unification between equals is rare, but it illuminates how states can pass from anarchy to hierarchy with minimal violence. The plan of the book is also laid out.

In the past, political cleavages connected the entire electorate to the political arena. The political system was, thus, well integrated and participation highly equal. This chapter argues and shows that sophistication is a new dividing line in the post-cleavage society. Moreover, lacking clear cues from cleavage organizations (i.e. political parties, churches and unions) individuals are increasingly dependent on the politicizing effect of private networks. This chapter illustrates how talking politics is relevant for non-cleavage groups but not for cleavage groups. This is accomplished by comparing cleavage voters—church affiliated Catholics and unionized workers—with sections of the electorate which are not linked to the traditional cleavage structure. The decline of traditional cleavage structures therefore increases the discriminating relevance of both sophistication and politicized networks. As a result, political integration moves into decline and electoral participation becomes increasingly unequal.

This chapter argues for the importance of an immigrant-centered model of political integration that focuses on the ways in which public policy produces material and symbolic resources that can be used by individual immigrants and their organizations to facilitate political and civic engagement. Conversely, public policies can also aggravate material inequalities or provide discursive scripts for political actors to exclude immigrants. Attention to the instrumental support and interpretative consequences of public policy can help explain within- and between-country variation in immigrants' political integration.

Policy-making is an institutional process as well as an intellectual activity. In the previous chapter, the intellectual component of policy-making was examined by looking at some of the principles that have been adumbrated by the European Union in the choice of policy. But since principles do not exist in thin air, they have to be employed by institutions in the task of formulating policy and devising solutions to environmental problems. Governance, then, involves institutions and institutional actors, thus, before choices can be made and strategies formulated, institutions have to be established and responsibilities defined. Within the European Union itself, where task expansion and issue redefinition is intrinsic to political integration, this interaction of policy and institutional development is even more marked, and this is further explored in this chapter.

This chapter examines the political integration of Mexican immigrants. The ninety Mexican immigrants interviewed here have participated in the political life of Los Angeles, although at varying levels. Those who are U.S. citizens have access to electing the officials who govern them. However, legal permanent residents and the undocumented are both present in political mobilizations and are in touch with what is going on in politics in both the United States and Mexico. In spite of many being long established in the United States, they have not completely detached from Mexican politics. There have been some cases of transnational political participation on the part of immigrants who have decided to participate in electoral contests in their places of origin, which demonstrates the use of differentiated strategies for political integration. However, the interviewees offer a very negative vision of Mexican politics, which they consistently associate with corruption, violence, and poverty.

This chapter introduces the subject matter, motivates the research questions, summarizes the key findings from each chapter and the main conclusions overall. The main factors that might be relevant for ethnic minority political integration are identified and include the positive selection of immigrants, processes of assimilation and convergence across generations with the white British, racial discrimination, social exclusion, substantive and descriptive political representation, potential alienation and disaffection, multiculturalism and within ethnic group bonding social capital, and within ethnic group socio-economic heterogeneity and social stratification. The chapter also describes the Ethnic Minority British Election Study, which is the main data source for the analysis.