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The article explores the theoretical capabilities of the fusion approach as a conceptual 'kit' to explain the 'bigger picture' of European integration from a local government perspective. Fusion addresses the rationales and methods facilitating the transfer of policy-making competences to the European level. It understands European integration as a merging of public resources and policy instruments from multiple levels of government, whereby accountability and responsibilities for policy outcomes become blurred. The article argues that the fusion approach is useful to explain the systemic linkages between macro-trajectories and the corresponding change at the local level; the fusion dynamics of the local and European levels in a common policy-cycle; and the attitudes of local actors towards the EU. Although the article concludes that local government is rather modestly 'fused' into the EU, fusion approaches allow examining the extent to which the local level has become integrated into the European governance system.

We examine unions between individuals with non-Western immigrant origins and those from the native majorities in six North American and Western European countries: Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and the United States. The analysis shows that certain deep social cleavages, involving African ancestry in the United States and Muslim religion in Western Europe, hinder the formation of mixed unions; in the European case, low rates of mixed unions are linked in some countries to high rates of transnational marriage. Overall, the rates of mixed unions appear to be higher in Canada, France, and the United States, suggesting a role for integration-related ideologies. In the case of the United States, we are able to trace the consequences of mixed unions, which appear likely to have the effect of changing, or expanding, the societal mainstream. Yet we conclude that mixed unions do not have a uniform significance for integration and that their effects are context-dependent.

In this paper, it is argued that innovation is the key driver of competitiveness and productivity. Innovation is an internationally distributed system of activities and therefore geographically localised and clustered firms are likely to form only a limited set of the total actors engaged in such a system. Where Porter's concept of clusters is used to describe mainly localised economic interactions it is not therefore likely to contribute much to an understanding of the relationships between innovation and economic growth. On the other hand, when the concept is applied to trading nodes in the global economy it is more likely to incorporate the international linkages between suppliers, producers and customers that are a key characteristic of the most innovative firms. The paper focuses on Porter's main arguments concerning the relationships between innovation and clustering. The vagueness of his analysis of the geography of clusters is highlighted. Nevertheless, following his argument that trading clusters are the key to economic growth, the analysis focuses on the nature and extent of linkages and in particular their contribution to innovation. Evidence from previous studies is used to suggest that national and international linkages and networks are just as significant as their local counterparts for firms in the UK. Evidence from the third Community Innovation Survey is used to test four of Porter's six hypotheses concerning the contribution of clustering to innovation. All of them are shown to benefit from national and international linkages and collaboration.

The ensuing remarks are addressed to two topics which seem to me important: (a) what conflicts, if any, are there between business history and economic history; and (b) how can research in the two areas be mutually helpful.

This paper analyses the impact of economic conditions on Portuguese local electoral outcomes. We use two extensive datasets to estimate an economic voting model which accounts for the possibility that different levels of government have different levels of responsibility for economic outcomes and for clarity of government responsibility. Empirical results indicate that the performance of the national economy is important especially if local governments are of the same party as the central government. The municipal situation is also relevant particularly in scenarios of higher clarity of government responsibility. ; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - PTDC/ECO/65711/2006 ...