The Europeanization of British Politics

Abstract

In our opening chapter, we surveyed Britain's relationship with the EU since the Treaty of Rome, and highlighted some of the popular characterizations of Britain as a 'reluctant', 'semi-detached' or 'awkward' partner in Europe. We also noted an imbalance in the literature on the broad topic of 'Britain and Europe'. It tends either to look at the behaviour of Britain in Europe, or to treat British politics and policy making as processes in which the EU is a supranational body, disconnected from daily life in Westminster and Whitehall. Conspicuously missing from the existing literature is systematic analysis of the deepening interconnections between political processes at the national and EU levels. Our focus on the Europeanization of British politics brings these interconnections to the fore.KeywordsMonetary PolicyTrade UnionRegional PolicyCompetition PolicyDomestic PoliticsThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.