Representing Europeans ― A Pragmatic Approach

Representing Europeans makes a fresh assessment of the challenge facing the European Union today: it can no longer carry out integration by stealth. Measures adopted to save the eurozone impose visible political costs without clearly visible benefits. There is a lack of popular commitment to more European integration because EU institutions represent its citizens indirectly or not at all. Reliance on citizenship lite is politically dangerous, since people retain the power to reject their national government because of commitments it makes in Brussels. The book's pragmatic approach recommends that enhanced European integration should be based on coalitions of the willing and accommodation of the unwilling. Federalists and Eurosceptics will alternatively agree and disagree with the argument of this book. But they cannot ignore the challenge it raises for the EU to pay more attention to the half a billion people it claims to represent.

Richard Rose has lectured in 25 of the 27 member states of the European Union. He is Director of the Centre for the Study of Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and part-time Professor at the European University Institute, Florence. Scholarly publications have earned him major scholarly honours from European and American institutions. Clarity in expressing ideas has resulted in contributions to print and television media from Moscow to Washington, and translations into 17 languages. He is co-founder of the European Consortium for Political Research and holder of its lifetime achievement award. He is Professor of Politics at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.