Book Review: Jeffrey J. Anderson (ed.), Regional Integration and Democracy: Expanding on the European Experience (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999, 334 pp., £45.50 hbk., £19.00 pbk.)
| Published date | 01 December 2000 |
| DOI | 10.1177/03058298000290030902 |
| Author | Vasilios W. Alevizakos |
| Date | 01 December 2000 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Book Reviews
927
Hedley Bull on International Society is an excellent book that I recommend
highly for IR researchers and students, but unless the p ublisher produc es a
paperback edition, it would be too expe nsive for stud ents.
SAMUEL M. MAKINDA
Samuel M. Makinda is Associate Professor and Head of the School of Politics and
Internatio nal Studies at Murd och University, Perth
Jeffrey J. Anderson (ed.), Regional Integration and Democracy: Expanding on
the European Experience (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999, 334 pp.,
£45.50 hbk., £19.00 pbk.).
Throughou t the 1980s and 1990s, reg ional integratio n emerged as one of th e most
important develop ments in world politi cs. The subjec t of this volume is t he
intersectio n of re gional integ ration and democra cy. In particula r the authors
critically e valuate the effect s of region al integration for democracy on t he national
as well a s supranational level. The geographical emphasis o f the volume is t he EU,
with two chapt ers examining NAFTA and MERCOSUR .
The first part of the book focuses o n the implicat ions of integratio n for member
states’ sovereig nty, le gitimacy and identity. Thomas Biersteker argue s th at t he
concept of sov ereignty has been transformed in the last fifty years and that the case
of the EU best captures this transformation. Therefore, European states remain
sovereign d espite the fact that they have rel inquished some i mportant prerogatives
to supra national institutio ns. Wolfgang Merkel focuses on the q uestion o f
legitimacy . Until the signing of the Maastricht treaty, European integration was
mainly conducted through negotiations among the national political elites.
However, the Maastricht treaty radically altered that pro cedure b y affectin g the
core sovereign doma ins e xercised by the member states. Hence, the Europ ean
polity is confronted with a dilemma: ‘integrate further, and democracy suffers;
democratize, and integration malfunctions’ (p. 11). Merkel argues that this problem
will onl y be augmented b y efforts to inc rease integration withou t support from the
public sph ere and that o ne possible solut ion involves the e stablishment of a
common political identity amo ng the citizens of the member states. Gary Marks
examines the developing identities of the European citizenry. He argues that
mutually inclusive territorial iden tities are not only common today but appear to
have become the norm since the late 1950s. Yet, ‘national identities form one
element i n a more complex multil evel pattern enco mpassing local and regional as
well as suprana tional identitie s’ (p . 77). Thus, a European identity alread y exists
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