Book Review: Christopher J Bickerton, Dermot Hodson and Uwe Puetter (eds), The New Intergovernmentalism: States and Supranational Actors in the Post-Maastricht Era
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929916676946 |
| Published date | 01 February 2017 |
| Date | 01 February 2017 |
| Author | Andriy Tyushka |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsEurope |
Book Reviews 147
as a special issue of The Journal of Legislative
Studies in 2014.
Based on the increasingly important role of
national parliaments since the introduction of
the Lisbon Treaty, their communicative func-
tion is viewed as a means to counter the demo-
cratic deficit that is frequently ascribed to the
EU. The contributions of 11 scholars in the
field aim to improve our understanding of
whether and how parliamentary actors recipro-
cally connect with the public on EU affairs,
using qualitative and quantitative comparative
empirical studies from different member states
and policy areas. The authors’ rather sober
finding is that the visibility and salience of the
EU in parliamentary communication are low
across the case studies included in this volume,
thus demonstrating that parliaments have
‘failed to keep their “promise of communica-
tion”’ (p. 10).
The book’s major strength consists in pro-
viding empirical insights into how parliaments
exercise their communication function in dif-
ferent contexts, which has so far remained
under-researched. Given the editors’ motiva-
tion to change this, one might have expected a
more coherent approach from such a volume.
Due to the wide range of different topics cov-
ered as well as acknowledged data limitations,
it might be difficult to establish general conclu-
sions. The level and depth of the analyses vary
significantly between the chapters, ranging
from the presentation of descriptive empirical
evidence to more thoroughly analytical elabo-
rations. One outstanding contribution is the
chapter by Pieter de Wilde, who provides an
interesting account of applying theories of
European integration to show that the politici-
sation of EU affairs in parliamentary commu-
nication cannot be understood without
considering the mass media.
In sum, the volume is a well-written, in-
depth overview of how national parliaments
communicate EU affairs to their electorates,
which also presents a starting point for further
research concerning theory building and
extending the empirical scope of investigating
the new role of parliaments in the EU. Despite
its broad introduction, which makes the book
accessible to political scientists unfamiliar
with parliamentary involvement in the EU,
some chapters focus on very specific topics of
EU legislative studies. Therefore, this book is
most suitable for scholars of EU politics inter-
ested in the latest research on parliamentary
communication of EU affairs.
Verena Kunz
(University of Mannheim)6
© The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929916677773
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The New Intergovernmentalism: States and
Supranational Actors in the Post-Maastricht
Era by Christopher J Bickerton, Dermot
Hodson and Uwe Puetter (eds). Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2015. 377pp., £55.00
(h/b), ISBN 9780198703617
Europe is said to have been forged out of crises
and to embody the sum of solutions adopted
for those crises. The flurry of crises which
Europe has faced since the turning point of
Maastricht has intrinsically demanded greater
integrative effort and response while simulta-
neously spurring growing recourse to national
means and responses. In this book on ‘new
intergovernmentalism’, Bickerton, Hodson
and Puetter claim that – all the integration
fatigue and the creeping renationalisation not-
withstanding – the integration process has
maintained its pace well since 1992, and this is
not necessarily due to an anticipated further
delegation of authority from member states to
the European Union. This finding represents
the very core of the post-Maastricht ‘integra-
tion paradox’ which the authors detected (pp.
4, 328) and made their point of departure in
theorising a sort of ‘deniable integration’ phe-
nomenon in the context of states and (not ver-
sus) supranational actors’ policymaking
activity in the given period.
Making a serious effort to capture such ‘inte-
gration without supranationalisation’ (pp. 20,
39–45) in their ‘new intergovernmentalism’ per-
spective, the authors advance the idea of a cer-
tain displacement (not marginalisation) of
supra-national actors, traditionally the quintes-
sential performers within the ‘community
method’. This displacement is to be seen against
the backdrop of paradoxically (or rather, logi-
cally, in view of the ‘new intergovernmentalist’
approach) emerging areas of widened and deep-
ened European integration over the period.
Scoped this way, the approach advanced in the
book is to be regarded as an analytical frame for
understanding the perplexing and dyn amic
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