A substantially revised and updated new edition of this highly-successful and ground-breaking text which analyzes the EU as a political system using the methods of comparative political science.

Product Description: This comparative examination of the impact of European integration on the politics and government of EU member states covers the parties, the legal system, voters and public administration.

Politics in the European Union is party politics. Almost all members of the Council, the Commission and European Parliament are leading party politicians who have spent most of their careers in party bureaucracies, are chosen within parties and accountable to party leaderships. Moreover, as in domestic politics, competition between party elites for political office and public policy outcomes is an essential feature of EU politics.