Book Review: Europe: European Parliament Elections after Eastern Enlargement
| DOI | 10.1111/1478-9302.12016_116 |
| Date | 01 May 2013 |
| Published date | 01 May 2013 |
| Author | Eugenio Salvati |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
in different sectors, the book presents a strong case that
the European Union has incorporated change into its
institutional nature.
This book provides a well-supported argument for
the assessment of the European Union’s strength in
overall governance. For European policy researchers,
the argument that the EU has developed a unique
form of governing is one that is currently dominating
the debate on European policy issues. However, for
students of general policy studies, the issues presented
in the book may be slightly unwarranted in their
analysis. It lacks an explanation of emerging argu-
ments in governance, and perhaps an explanation of
what good governance entails. By explaining the
context in which the argument takes place, the book
would be stronger as a defence of good European
governance. However, the case studies presented
display a clear evolution in the institutional nature of
the European Union. For students of European
studies, this book presents several case studies that
warrant further investigation, specifically in showing
the extent to which the evolution in governance has
occurred in the EU.
Katrina Kelly
(University of Nottingham)
European Parliament Elections after Eastern
Enlargement by Hermann Schmitt (ed.). Abing-
don: Routledge, 2012. 168pp., £24.95, ISBN 978 0
415 50948 0
This book, edited by Hermann Schmitt, has the chal-
lenging aim of evaluating the impact of the Eastern
enlargement on different aspects concerning European
Union politics. For this purpose the authors have
analysed the data concerning the 2004 European
elections. The different chapters are grouped in three
distinct sections: the first analyses East–West differ-
ences in citizens’ attitude towards the European
Union and towards the idea of European identity; the
second investigates the impact of the enlargement
on the European party system and the election cam-
paign; the third focuses on the electoral participation
and the elements that influence voters’ choice. The
main question that connects all the three parts is:
what changed in the EU with the 2004 elections? To
understand if the Union has faced a major trans-
formation, the book tries to comprehend how citi-
zens’ attitudes and the political systems of the new
member states are different from the ones of the old
members of the EU. The chapters are all empirical-
analytical and are based on the data of the post-
election surveys of the 2004 European Election
Studies (EES) or on the results of content analyses of
party manifestos.
Thanks to the large amount of data provided by the
surveys of the 2004 EES, this book represents a very
useful contribution for scholars of the European Par-
liament, especially for those interested in the evolution
of the European party system. The different chapters
allow us to gain a clearer view of the situation of the
European party system after the enlargement: the major
empirical result is that the enlargement had little
impact on the format of the EU party system, con-
cerning both the groups’ cohesion and the election
campaigns.
As regards support for European integration, a
judgement seems to prevail in Eastern countries that
voters’ judgement is connected to economic perform-
ance; that is, a positive economic situation is linked to
greater support for the Union. The other aspect that
emerges is the enforcement of the process of identity
formation in the EU: this sense of community is more
developed in the oldest countries than in the new
members from Eastern Europe, creating a situation for
which ‘the far ther away one gets from the core of the
Union in both geographical and temporal terms, the
weaker this sense of community becomes’ (p. 8). In
conclusion, this volume represents an important con-
tribution to measuring the impact of the enlargement
to Eastern Europe on the political structure and politi-
cal processes of the EU.
Eugenio Salvati
(University of Pavia)
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© 2013 TheAuthors. Political Studies Review © 2013 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2013, 11(2)
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