Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Restructuring Territoriality
- I THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS
- II THE TRANSFORMATION OF GOVERNANCE
- III EUROPE–U.S. COMPARISONS
- 8 The European Union in American Perspective: The Transformation of Territorial Sovereignty in Europe and the United States
- 9 Is the Democratic Deficit a Deficiency? The Case of Immigration Policy in the United States and the European Union
- 10 Territory, Representation, and Policy Outcome: The United States and the European Union Compared
- VI CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
- Reference List
- Index
10 - Territory, Representation, and Policy Outcome: The United States and the European Union Compared
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Restructuring Territoriality
- I THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS
- II THE TRANSFORMATION OF GOVERNANCE
- III EUROPE–U.S. COMPARISONS
- 8 The European Union in American Perspective: The Transformation of Territorial Sovereignty in Europe and the United States
- 9 Is the Democratic Deficit a Deficiency? The Case of Immigration Policy in the United States and the European Union
- 10 Territory, Representation, and Policy Outcome: The United States and the European Union Compared
- VI CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
- Reference List
- Index
Summary
The United States is a federal system with a strong federal government, whereas the European Union is an entity with characteristics found in both polities and international organizations. Although a theoretical dispute rages between those who would use international relations theory (Moravscik 1998) and those who would use concepts drawn from comparative politics to analyze European integration (Hix 1994; Hooghe and Marks 2001a; Kohler-Koch and Eising 1999; Sandholtz and Stone Sweet 1998; Sbragia 1992), it is now clear that both approaches have utility depending on the features of the European Union being examined. The European Union is simultaneously an international organization, an international regime, and a semipolity with some federallike features.
The ‘semipolity’ is shaped in many ways by the fact that it is intertwined with an international organization. As Andrew Hurrell and Anand Menon point out:
… traditional comparative politics explanations of actor strategies in policy-making cannot deal with a central motivation of much EU policy making – namely the management of unequal state power and the desire to tie certain states within a structure from which they have the option to defect.
(1996: 392).Such management of unequal state power is calibrated in all the institutions of the European Community (Sbragia 1993), but it is most explicitly addressed in the Council of Ministers with its differential votes and different rules for different types of policy-making procedures.
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- Restructuring TerritorialityEurope and the United States Compared, pp. 205 - 222Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
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