In the past, economic integration in Europe was largely compatible with the persistence of different national varieties of capitalism. While product market integration intensified competition, member states could build on and foster their respective comparative advantage. To date, this no longer...

In a recent article, Caporaso and Tarrow have argued that the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is increasingly moving in a social policy direction that will ultimately put European politics on a “Polanyian” course. We take issue with their claim and distinguish three...

At first glance, the social purpose and the democratic potential of the EU have made progress in the last 15 years. However, this impression is misleading. We argue instead that the social and democratic potentials of the EU are crucially shaped by the heterogeneity of European varieties of...

Mit den Vertragsänderungen des Amsterdamer Gipfels (1997) wurde die Beschäftigungspolitik offizieller Teil der Politik der EU. Mit ihr erhielten nicht nur europäische Institutionen Einfluss auf einen Politikbereich, der zuvor in nationaler Verantwortung lag, sondern mit der "offenen Methode...

Dieser Aufsatz greift die in den Siebzigerjahren entwickelten Argumente zur "Unregierbarkeit" einerseits und zum "Spätkapitalismus" andererseits auf und befragt sie nach ihrer heutigen Relevanz. Beide Denkschulen erkannten eine Überforderung des Staats. Während linke Autoren die Ursache in...

This paper starts from four observations: (1) voter turnout is declining in established democracies; (2) low turnout means socio-economically unequal turnout; (3) compulsory voting is an effective means to increase turnout; (4) even low-turnout countries, however, have neither introduced nor...

This paper contributes to the EU reform debate that the Commission started with its white paper on the future of Europe. I suggest that we should not only pay attention to the political competences of the EU, but also focus on the restriction of the political room for manoeuvre which derives...