Andrew Glencross - Böcker

EU Federalism and Constitutionalism: The Legacy of Altiero Spinelli, edited by Andrew Glencross and Alexander H. Trechsel, represents the first book-length study of the travails of the implementation of federalism at the European level from the perspective of Altiero Spinelli's ideas and his political life, which were both devoted to a federally united Europe. It is also a timely publication given the protracted struggle to implement a new EU institutional architecture—the 2009 Lisbon Treaty—that is already being tested by the fallout from the global financial crisis. This fallout has brought into stark relief the tensions within the EU over the question of enhancing solidarity and federal unity or remaining a looser association of sovereign states. Hence by examining the successes and failures of federalism within the EU system, the book seeks to explain not only how the EU has reached its current impasse but also how it may fare in the future. To achieve this objective, the book takes an interdisciplinary approach that covers all three dimensions of the European project: historical, legal, and political. In this fashion, Andrew Glencross and Alexander H. Trechsel's EU Federalism and Constitutionalism: The Legacy of Altiero Spinelli offers a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the history, evolution, and future of federal principles and institutions in the European integration process.

This book studies the unprecedented decision of 23 June 2016, which saw the UK electorate vote to leave the EU, turning David Cameron’s referendum gamble into a great miscalculation. It analyzes the renegotiation that preceded the vote, before examining the campaign itself so as to understand why the government’s strategy for winning foundered. It then evaluates the implications that this decision has for the country’s international relations as well as for its domestic politics. The author’s final reflections are on the political philosophy of Brexit, which is founded on a critique of representative democracy. Yet the use of direct democracy to trigger EU withdrawal leaves the supposedly sovereign British people at an impasse. For it is up to the people’s representatives to negotiate the terms of Brexit. By engaging with a highly charged political debate in an accessible and non-partisan manner this book will appeal to a broad readership of academics, policy-makers, journalists, and interested citizens.