Europeanization and multilevel governance : cohesion policy in the European Union and Britain / Ian Bache.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Europeanization has become a major theme within European studies in recent years, emphasizing the domestic effects of the EU on its member and applicant states. At the same time, multilevel governance has emerged as an important concept, highlighting shifts both in horizontal relations between state and society and in vertical links between actors at different territorial levels. In this state-of-the-art study, Ian Bache traces the relationship between these two key elements, considering the extent to which Europeanization advances multilevel governance within member states through the requirements of EU cohesion policy.



Bache focuses especially on Britain, a member state whose political system has been increasingly characterized by multilevel governance since it became an EU member. Comparing Britain's case to that of ten other member states, the author distinguishes between the EU's effects in simple polities--in which voice, influence, and power are diffused through multiple levels and modes of governance--and in compound polities, where voice, influence, and power are more concentrated.



Bringing together the conceptual tools of multilevel governance and policy networks and developing a framework for using these tools together in future research, this clearly written study will be valuable for scholars and students of EU and British politics.

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CHOICE Review

Does EU membership change domestic politics within its member states? The change that Bache (Univ. of Sheffield, UK) addresses is how the EU's multilevel governance style encourages a partnership in policy making and implementation where regional and non-state actors assume greater involvement. Bache has focused on Europeanization for 15 years, and this book synthesizes his findings. As previous work in The Europeanization of British Politics (CH, May'07, 44-5274) attests, his deep understanding and prolonged focus upon the British dimension of this phenomenon grants him a solid vantage point to qualitatively assess change. The study illustrates how political actors such as trade unions and regional functionaries gain voice in the policy process. Government actors learn and adopt the European policy style that is also promoted through the manner in which cohesion funds--the EU's mechanism for redistributing wealth between regions--are dispensed and monitored. Especially in the UK, this change has been symbiotic with domestic regionalization policy. Though written concisely and accessibly, understanding all its implications requires an advanced theoretical and empirical grasp of both British and EU politics. Summing Up: Optional. Graduate, research, and professional collections. A.A. Caviedes SUNY Fredonia