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Palgrave Macmillan

The Politics of the Rule of Law in the EU Polity

Actors, Tools and Challenges

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

  • Offers a summary of the EU’s rule of law debate over the last decade
  • Analyses a variety of challenges that the EU faces, including the migration crisis and Eurozone management
  • Examines the motivations and preferences of actors within various EU polities, as well as their division lines

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics (PSEUP)

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About this book

This book analyses the challenges facing the European Union through the frame of the rule of law. It shows how over the last decades the increased dissensus and contestation of the rule of law has given rise to heightened tensions between national and EU institutions, leading to the establishment of new soft and hard policy tools to safeguard it at the supranational level. The book proposes a comprehensive and multifaceted analysis of the current state of debates by exploring how EU institutional actors seek to uphold the Union’s values. It shows that European integration in core state powers is the outcome of the clash between liberal and anti-liberal ideas, between dissensus and contestation over how collective problems should be solved, in a community of voices featuring assent and dissent, all of which give democracy its substance. Beyond the analysis of the emerging EU’s rule of law policy, the book will help readersto better understand the EU’s fragilities and resilience and the potential challenges for the future of EU integration.

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

Reviews

Its rule of law crisis, the European Union could solve it on its own. In her thought-provoking book, Ramona Coman shows why the EU is largely failing in this enterprise. Analysing the politics of the rule of law of the political EU institutions and of civil society, but leaving out the Court, Coman traces the roots of the current age of dissensus. Whether the reliance on conditionality rather helps or harms for the future, one wonders. Highly recommended reading!        


Susanne K. Schmidt, Professor of Political Science, University of Bremen, Germany

Ramona Coman’s timely book is the first monograph to provide a comprehensive overview of the recent evolution of the European Union’s rule of law policy - the development of instruments through which EU institutions can address the dismantling of core aspects of liberal democracy in member states.  Coman’s compelling narrative of the politics surrounding the evolution of the policy centres on a dissensus between liberal and anti-liberal ideas, which she conceptualises as a fundamental clash between irreconcilable positions. The book makes an important contribution to the highly topical debate and growing literature on the EU’s ability to address democratic backsliding among its members.


Ulrich Sedelmeier is an Associate Professor (Reader) in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

Growing illiberal backsliding is shaking the foundations of the EU project. Against this background, Ramona Coman masterfully surveys the many facets of EU’s rule of law policy. Her vast and deep coverage makes this book an obligatory reading for both scholars and practitioners engaging with the subject. Without doubt, this book is a pivotal reference for a central value of the EU foundation. Clearly conceived and written, the book appeals also to anyone interested in European politics.

-Carlos Closa, Professor, Institute for Public Goods and Policies at the Spanish National Research Council, and School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute, Italy.


Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Political Science, Universite libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium

    Ramona Coman

About the author

Ramona Coman is Professor of Political Science at the Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, where she is also President of the Institute for European Studies. She is the co-editor of books including Governance and Politics in the Post-Crisis European Union (2019), Political Science in Motion (2016), The State of Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: A Comparative Perspective (2016), and Europeanization and European Integration: From Incremental to Structural Change (2014).

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