Suchergebnisse

Argues that the logic of European integration stems from a combination of global processes of production & exchange & a form of political organization at the regional/supranational level. Further, it is suggested that the particular form of this political organization has been conditioned by the unique historical conjuncture of the division of Europe after WWII into East & West, thus emphasizing global politico-strategic considerations & the challenge posed to the power of the ruling classes in Western Europe by the radicalized working classes. The conventional theory of European integration is described as ahistorical, & thus unable to explain the logic & roots of European integration. The Marxist theory of integration is employed to examine this historical process, with the careful acknowledgement that this theory unduly privileges macroissues concerning the economy at the expense of microanalysis of political processes. Avenues toward synthesizing these approaches into a new, more nuanced theory of European integration are briefly discussed. D. M. Smith

Investigates the content & form of the triangular institutional relationship between local government, nation-state, & European Union (EU) institutions as the economy has moved from Fordist to post-Fordist forms of production & work organization. Particular attention is paid to issues of work organization & employment. It is argued that the restructuring of the production process & the organization of work has meant the creation of more active labor policies that regulate the labor market to meet the demands of capital accumulation. Further, discussions with the EU about these processes have been ideologically biased toward market-oriented solutions. Specifically, the principal of subsidiarity that has arisen in these discussions is described as primarily concerned with decentralizing & privatizing social costs of innovation & structural competitiveness at the expense of weakened democratic forms at the local-regional level. Thus, it is asserted that issues of employment & work organization at the EU level will ultimately be decided by positions of power & concerns of expediency, rather than local-regional forms of democratic decision making. 46 References. D. M. Smith