*** ANTHONY SELDON (Ed.): Blair's Britain, 1997-2007. Cambridge University Press (The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK. Tel: (44-1223) 326050 - Fax: 326111 - email: directcustserve@cambridge.org - Internet: http://www.cambridge.org ). 2007, 690 pp, £15-99. ISBN 978-0-521-70946-0.
This book is a comprehensive retrospective of the activity and action of a figure who has dominated British politics - and to a large extent international politics - for more than a decade, namely Tony Blair. The first Labour leader to be elected prime minister of the United Kingdom for three times in a row, he changed the face of the UK and the image it projects overseas, particularly on the other side of the Channel among its European partners.
When he took over from John Major as prime minister in 1997, Tony Blair found himself at the helm of a country that, as a result of several years of hardline Thatcherism, was the EU Member State that was the least committed to the European ideal, if not outright hostile, and which therefore found itself on the fringes of the EU, leaving France and Germany in the driving seat. Aware that the UK had everything to lose from this self-isolation and that only way of maintaining the UK's sphere of influence in a changing world was to be present in the EU, Tony Blair very quickly adopted a new, more positive, approach to London's relations to the EU and started building up links with the other member states. His coming to power did not lead to any changes in terms of European issues, but more a change in attitude compared with the years dominated by the Conservatives. Under Blair, the attitude became proactive rather than refusenik. As far as London was concerned, it was not a matter of accepting everything coming from 'Brussels' but rather of expressing its own views on Europe. It has to be acknowledged that in a country where some of the media, which tends to be Eurosceptic, is happy to manipulate public opinion that has not been won over about the benefits of belonging to the EU, it was far from easy for a political leader legitimately hoping to 'survive' to come up with any more. All the more reason, in fact, not to criticise him in fact in that Tony Blair cleverly introduced constitutional changes that made it possible, for example, to adopt the European Convention of Human Rights, reform of the House of Lords and independence for the Bank of England - which was also one of the criteria for joining the euro. These and other domestic changes made it possible to ensure better coordination with European institutions which, along with the changes of direction taken by the EU's economic policies towards more free-market ideas and the fact that as a result of the rounds of enlargement of the EU, the spectre of federalism is moving away, have helped create a less conflict-ridden image of the EU in the eyes of many refuseniks. Tony Blair's desire to make London an indispensable protagonist in European affairs was also reflected in his activity under the Lisbon Process and the Saint Malo Declaration. Each time, the underlying message was 'We we here!' However, the fact that Tony Blair was one of the most pro-EU British politicians since Ted Heath, not content to simply veto processes the way the Tories tend to do, but trying to get them to change in what London felt was the right direction, does not mean that his loyalty was with Europe. It was, in fact, his loyalty with the other side of the Atlantic and the war on Iraq that he has been most criticised for. This led to a clouding of his image at the end of his time in office, although he has since found new allies in Europe in the form of Poland and the Czech Republic, for example.
This excellent book looks back at ten years of Blairism both in terms of politics (ranging from constitutional amendments to his relations with the media via his performance as leader of the Labour Party) and in terms of economics (ranging from his 'new capitalism' a hybrid system mixing economic liberalism with social safeguards, a model admired by figures like Sarkozy and Berlusconi, to his failure when it came to transport policy). The authors also assess issues like his prison policy, immigration and education, his great contribution to the environmental issue, his efforts in the Northern Ireland peace process and the controversial issue of the armed forces and how they are seen by UK public opinion with regard to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and intervention in Kosovo and Sierra Leone. Vital reading on one of the world's leading politicians in recent years.
Nuno Duarte
*** NEIL ROLLINGS: British Business in the Formative Years of European Integration, 1945-1973. Cambridge University Press (see above). "Cambridge Studies in the Emergence of Global Enterprise". 2007, 278 pp, £45. ISBN 978-0-521-88811-0.
Head of the economic and social history department at Glasgow University, Neil Rollings' book fills a gap. To date, the position of the United Kingdom in (or on the fringes of) the European project has been studied first and foremost from the viewpoint of the country's integration. This time, the issue is studied from the viewpoint of British business circles, following long, detailed, research in the archives of the Federation of British Industries (that later became the Confederation of British Industry). He shows, for example, that most British businessmen and women have never been hostile to the European project and explains the reasons for this and the impact in terms of the country's economic development. He starts by explaining how British economic relations (trade and investment) gradually shifted from the Commonwealth to the European Community. He then looks at the way British business circles experience the European integration process and London's attitude to European integration from the end of the Second World War until the UK joined what was then the EEC in 1973. The author fine-tunes his research by looking at competition policy, indirect taxation and law.
(PBo)
*** LINDA LEE KAID (Ed.): The EU Expansion. Communicating Shared Sovereignty in the Parliamentary Elections. Editions Peter Lang (29 Broadway, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10006. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Frontiers in Political Communication" series, No. 10. 2008, 252 pp, €54-40. ISBN 978-0-8204-8173-9.
This is an unexpected book that could help the European Union tackle one of its greatest problems, namely what is known as 'democratic deficit'. A number of studies and opinion polls have drawn the attention of European decision-makers to the EU's inability to get citizens to look favourably upon it or even show any interest at all. With a few rare exceptions (like Belgium where because voting is compulsory by law and therefore the turnout for the 2004 European elections was 91%), voting for the European Parliament is of no interest at all, or at best slight interest, to a huge number of people living in Europe. The same polls and studies show that the situation is partly due to a lack of communication by the EU which means that the people were uncertain, to the say the least, about 'Brussels' or even highly suspicious and afraid of it. In order to uncover the roots of the problem, the authors of this book started by analysing the means of communication used by European parties in their electoral campaigns and their impact in terms of turnout. They then look at media coverage of elections in the different countries of Europe and the United States, going on to compare this with turnout.
The book shows that the lack (deficit) of interest of Europeans in the EU is due to a lack of interest in politics in general. It appears that political parties invest far less in European elections than other elections, producing fewer posters, fewer TV adverts and therefore lower awareness among voters. The authors point out, however, that it is clear that voters will not themselves choose to go and seek information on specific parties or political programmes and it is in voters' free time, while watching the television or listening to the radio, that they get informed. And therein lies the rub. In Germany, for example, less than 5% of television coverage and the written media was devoted to the European elections in 2004, and the figures are little better in the other member states. But some 80% of the people who actually turned out to vote said they had seen TV ads - which explains the importance of awareness raising. In modern democratic societies, the electoral process hangs more and more on the media, as is spectacularly shown by elections on the other side of the Atlantic. If the media and even political parties (!) see European elections as second rate, one cannot expect voters to be overcome with enthusiasm. This of course explains, in Europe and more widely, that if the media, particularly television, takes no interest in Europe, then how can one expect the citizens that are their clients, audience, listeners and readers to take interest? This is an interesting study which should encourage the European Commission to not hold back but to throw itself into the partnerships it has started to draw up with radio stations, soon to be extended to television channels.
(NDu)
*** PASCAL GILLIAUX: Le traité de Lisbonne. Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques (Crisp, 1A place Quetelet, B-1210 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2110180 - Fax: 2197934 - Internet: http://www.crisp.be ). "Courrier hebdomadaire" series, No. 1996-1977. 2007, 83 pp, €12-40.
Impossible to more briefly describe the essential nature of the Lisbon Reform Treaty and compare with previous treaties and the aborted constitution. This issue of the newsletter unpicks the treaty briefly but accurately. The author analyses the structure (disappearance of symbols, the value of the treaties and the EU's objectives, etc) and then looks at how the EU functions, its powers, institutions, etc. Summing up, Pascal Gilliaux argues that the EU does in fact have a constitution and the French and Dutch rejections of the draft constitutional treaty simply stopped it from being made explicit.
(MT)
*** ATHANASIOS GROMITSARIS: Rechtsgrund und Haftungsauflösung im Staatshaftungsrecht. Eine Untersuchung auf europarechtlicher une rechtsvergleichender Grundlage. Duncker & Humblot (Postfach 41 03 29, D-12113 Berlin. Tel/Fax: (49-30) 79000631 Internet: http://www.duncker-humblot.de ). "Schriften zum Öffentlichen Recht" series, No. 1024. 2006, 302 pp. ISBN 3-428-12029-9.
This comparative public law thesis for Jena University in Germany describes the legal and modern constitutional conditions for public authority liability. It analyses the problems while taking account of the European Court of Human Rights case law and the European integration process, comparing the German situation with changes in constitutional and administrative law in the French and English legal systems. Extending this research to the legal conditions surrounding the public liability system in the United States of America, the book is not so much a simple comparison of different countries but is rather consideration of a number of key concepts relating to the issue. This strengthens the study of the conditions that should enlighten competition law in the countries in question and enables the author to make a few comments about the changes to be dealt with by German law, showing that the debates that are taking place at present over the law covering the liability of public authorities should lead to a parallel reform of administrative law. This is a detailed book on a specific area of law.
(GFr)
*** SUJIT CHOUDHRY (Ed.): Constitutional Design for Divided Societies. Integration or Accommodation? Oxford University Press (Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. Tel: (44-1865) 556767 - Fax: 556646 - Internet: http://www.oup.com ). 2008, 474 pp, £50. ISBN 978-0-19-953541-5.
In terms of the constitution, how can one seize the opportunities and take up the challenges of the different ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural groups that live in various countries in order to make democracy, social justice, peace and stability stronger? It is this question - so vital for so many countries these days - that the authors of this fine book answer. They take two complementary approaches. They start by describing and analysing the two constitutional roads taken in order to contain tension, namely "accommodation" and "integration". These two ideas are then assessed in the light of the situation in countries like Canada, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Islamic world, Fiji, multi-nation Spain, Iraq, Northern Ireland, South Africa and Scotland as part of the United Kingdom.
(MT)
*** LAURENTIU D. TANASE: Pluralisation religieuse et société en Roumanie. Peter Lang (32 Hochfeldstrasse, Postfach 746 Berne 9. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Publications Universitaires européennes - European University Studies", No. 422. 2008, 313 pp, €55. ISBN 978-3-03911-521-1.
Holder of the chair of the sociology of religion at the faculty of orthodox theology at Bucharest University in Romania, Laurentiu Tanase reports in this book on pluralism in Romanian religion in the twentieth century. After describing the way various 'ethnic' cults, recognised upon the formation of the modern Romanian state in 1918, have been integrated, he assesses the state regulations on religious affairs under the Communist regime and until the fall of the Ceausescu regime in 1989. The author then looks at factors since then that have favoured the propagation of new religious movements, and how this has been reported upon in the press. This triple approach allows the author to discern the type of religious modernity being drawn up in Romania against the general backdrop of secularisation.
(PBo)