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The EU poses quite profound questions for scholars and students of the social and political sciences. Its appeal will reside not only in its comprehensive and authoritative coverage of the field, but also in the quality of its contributors, and the diversity of the theoretical and methodological approach included

Intro -- Preface -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- List of Figures -- List of Graphs -- List of Tables -- List of Appendixes -- Chapter 1 Introducing Discourse Analysis in EU Politics -- What Is Discourse Analysis? -- Discourse Analysis in the Study of the EU -- Scope of Research -- Approaches and Research Themes -- What Can't Discourse Analysis Be Used for? -- The Aim of the Book and Its Approach to Discourse Analysis -- Structure of the Book -- References -- Chapter 2 Discourse Analysis as a Research Strategy -- Agency-Structure as a Continiuum -- Discursive Conflict-Consensus as a Continiuum -- Causality and Types of Explanations -- Discourse Analysis and Time -- Multi-theoretical Analysis and Counterfactual Reasoning -- Ideas, Discourse and Institutions: A General Analytical Framework -- References -- Chapter 3 Discourse Analysis, Data and Research Techniques -- What to Read? -- Documents -- Interviews and 'Naturally Occurring Talk' -- Survey Questionnaires -- Non-linguistic Data -- How to Read? -- Content Analysis and Computer-Assisted Text Analysis -- Problem Perception Analysis -- References -- Chapter 4 Discourse and EU Policy-Making -- Reforms and Actors in the CAP -- A Mechannism of Resistance: Discursive Path-Dependency -- Two Conditions for Transformation: One Necessary and One Conducive -- First Mechanism of Transformation: Discursive Ambiguity -- Second Mechanism of Transformation: Translation -- Third Mechanism of Transformation: Discursive Entrepreneurship -- Fourth Mechannism of Transformation: Expertise -- Expertise in EU Policy-Making -- References -- Chapter 5 Discourse and the Strategic Usage of Europe -- 'Europe' as a Strategic Discursive Resource -- Three Conditions Conducive for the Strategic Usage of Discourse -- How Can It Be Determined Whether Decision-Makers Invoke Discourse Strategically?.

AbstractIn the multilevel system of the European Union (EU), national governments have been empowered at the expense of parliaments. We study the executive power shift in EU politics in the formation of national preferences. This article shows that governments are more likely to integrate parliaments and external actors, such as other governments and EU institutions, when they advocate extreme bargaining positions in EU negotiations. We theoretically develop this argument and provide an empirical study of Eurozone politics, covering the preference formation of 27 EU member states. The analysis shows that the executives are overall the dominating power: most of the time, governments form national preferences on their own. When governments integrate additional actors, they mostly rely on external actors and do so to avoid blame and to shift responsibility. These findings question whether the integration of national parliaments in EU politics indeed addresses democratic accountability concerns.

The EU poses quite profound questions for scholars and students of the social and political sciences. Its appeal will reside not only in its comprehensive and authoritative coverage of the field, but also in the quality of its contributors, and the diversity of the theoretical and methodological approach included.