The New European Community

This book describes the adoption and implementation of the Single European Act and the accompanying institutional changes that have taken place in the European Community during the 1980s. It emphasizes the decisions on European integration in the context of a political economy. The New European Community is the first systematic, book-length discussion of the major political institutions of the European Community (EC) after the transformation of the 1987 Single European Act, itself a surprise and a mystery whose effects are unraveled here.Professors Keohane and Hoffmann open the volume by placing the evolution of the new European Community into broad, theoretical perspective. Their expert contributors?including highly regarded international scholars, a judge of the European Court of Justice, and a long-term British politician?present engaging overviews of the process at work in major EC events and institutions. The centerpiece of the volume, Peter Ludlow's chapter on the European Commission, lays out all of the systems and actors in the emerging EC and shows their direct connection with problems of Community development and integration.Filled with examples, illustrations, anecdotes, and valuable data, The New European Community will be indispensable for all students and scholars of international relations and European studies as well as for those in business and government who want to understand the European Community before and beyond 1992.