{"product_id":"political-history-of-european-integration","title":"Political History of European Integration","description":"The Maastricht Treaty in 1992 was based on neoliberal ideas of a market-driven European economy and democracy, and continues to be seen as a step towards a new stage of unification: towards a more federal Europe based on market integration.     The authors demonstrate that European integration as a federal project actually came to an end around 1970. The European Economic Community (EEC) - the precursor of EU - was never thought of as a democracy. The authors locate a shift in thinking about legitimacy and further integration in the 1980s when the idea of a European democracy was connected with a plan for the internal market: the market would pave the way for democracy. Since then, there has been a growing tension between the official line about a democratic EU and the institutional capacity to carry it through. This tension undermined integration. The book suggests that, instead of democracy-through-market, there are signs of increasing social disintegration, political extremism and populism in the wake of economic integration.    Providing a more realistic historical understanding of European integration, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, history and European studies.","brand":"Taylor \u0026 Francis Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54240681230680,"sku":"9780415578837","price":198.4,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780415578837.jpg?v=1769594421","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/political-history-of-european-integration","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}