Visions for Europe: Debating the Future of European Union with Great Political Thinkers

This book offers a fresh look at some of the most challenging dilemmas of European integration and proposes innovative solutions to them by building on perspectives and insights from twelve classical authors in the history of political thought. This book delves into the European Union’s most urgent challenges, drawing on the wisdom of twelve seminal political philosophers. Each chapter tackles a critical debate on EU integration, providing insights from a distinguished thinker and culminating with a targeted EU strategy or policy recommendation. The discussions range from the quest for visionary leaders capable of transformative change in Europe, to fostering a European social contract embraced by its citizens. Additional topics include the construction of a public sphere that allows for the formation of a collective will beyond borders, the prerequisites for lasting peace on the continent and the ongoing class struggles within the EU. Featuring the perspectives of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine of Hippo, Niccolò Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, Mary Wollstonecraft, Karl Marx, Hannah Arendt, John Rawls and bell hooks, this multidisciplinary work introduces readers to some of the central debates of European integration through the lenses of some of the world’s greatest political thinkers and suggests innovative directions for the Union’s future. Offering a fresh and innovative approach to debates on European integration, the book aims to present compelling visions for the EU that overcome its current predicament. This book offers a fresh look at some of the most challenging dilemmas of European integration and proposes innovative solutions to them by building on perspectives and insights from twelve classical authors in the history of political thought. The book simultaneously offers an original introduction to critical debates in EU studies and makes key political thinkers more accessible to contemporary readers by presenting present-day policy applications of their doctrines. While each chapter discusses a specific challenge for the EU, five key themes appear recurrently throughout the book: (i) the prospects for peace in Europe; (ii) the conditions for an inclusive EU democracy; (iii) socioeconomic inequalities in the EU; (iv) strategies to promote political change in Europe; and (v) the requisites for a fully-fledged EU citizenship. The authors discussed are Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, Kant, Wollstonecraft, Marx, Arendt, Rawls and hooks.