European integration confuses citizens and scholars alike. It appears to transfer power away from national capitals towards Brussels yet a close study of the EU reveals the absence of any real leap towards supranationalism. The EU is dominated by cooperation between national representatives and national officials yet it continually appears to us as something external and separate from national political life.

This book takes on these paradoxes by arguing that European integration should no longer be studied as the transcendence of states or as merely an expression of national interests. Rather, we should approach it as a process of state transformation. This transformation is from nation-state to member state. The book explores in detail the concept of member state, arguing that it provides us with the best tool for understanding the European integration process.

Some review

« This is by far the conceptually most innovative contribution to the study of European integration that I have seen in decades. It impressively links the study of the European Union, all too often pursued as a stand-alone speciality, to comparative politics, the political economy of postwar capitalism, international relations, and theories of contemporary statehood. The book places its subject in the context of the still ongoing dissolution of the Keynesian corporatist order of the Golden Age. It combines rich historical narrative with painstaking and highly original conceptual work, as well as with a grounded understanding of the difficult problems currently faced by the European state system. » – Wolfgang Streeck, Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, Germany

More on Oxford University Press website

Lire son interview « Je ne crois pas à la théorie de la désagrégation de l’Union européenne »