European Union Policy and Governance

The European Union is an unusual political construction: a voluntary association of sovereign states that has gradually built shared laws, courts, and institutions capable of overriding national governments on matters ranging from trade rules to human rights standards. Scholars working in this area examine how that authority is negotiated and legitimated across multiple levels—EU institutions, member-state governments, and regional bodies—and why some countries comply with EU regulations while others resist or defect. A persistent tension runs through the research: the EU has expanded its reach considerably, yet many citizens feel distant from Brussels decision-making, raising unresolved questions about democratic accountability and who, in practice, governs Europe. Active debates center on whether the EU exercises a distinctly normative form of power by exporting its values and regulatory standards beyond its borders, and on how domestic political parties are repositioning themselves as Euroscepticism challenges the assumptions that once made deeper integration seem inevitable.

Works

143,577

Total citations

1,120,742

Keywords

European integrationgovernanceEuropean Unionnormative powerpolitical dynamicsmulti-level