Reforming the European Union : realizing the impossible / Daniel Finke, Thomas König, Sven-Oliver Proksch, and George Tsebelis.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"For decades the European Union tried changing its institutions, but achieved only unsatisfying political compromises and modest, incremental treaty revisions. In late 2009, however, the EU was successfully reformed through the Treaty of Lisbon. Reforming the European Union examines how political leaders ratified this treaty against all odds and shows how this victory involved all stages of treaty reform negotiations--from the initial proposal to referendums in several European countries. The authors emphasize the strategic role of political leadership and domestic politics, and they use state-of-the-art methodology, applying a comprehensive data set for actors' reform preferences. They look at how political leaders reacted to apparent failures of the process by recreating or changing the rules of the game. While domestic actors played a significant role in the process, their influence over the outcome was limited as leaders ignored negative referendums and plowed ahead with intended reforms. The book's empirical analyses shed light on critical episodes: strategic agenda setting during the European Convention, the choice of ratification instrument, intergovernmental bargaining dynamics, and the reaction of the German Council presidency to the negative referendums in France, the Netherlands, and Ireland."-- Provided by publisher.

Cover; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication Page; Table of Contents; List of Figures; List of Tables; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Chapter One: From the European Convention to the Lisbon Agreement and Beyond: A Veto Player Analysis By George Tsebelis; 1.1 Judges, Bureaucrats, and the Democratic Deficit; 1.2 Veto Players and Their Policy and Institutional Implications; 1.3 A Qualified Majority in the Council: To What Extent Does It Impede Decision Making?; 1.4 Battles over the "Default Solution"; 1.5 Conclusion.

Chapter Two: Revealing Constitutional Preferences in the European Convention By Sven-Oliver Proksch2.1 Revealing Preferences: Cosponsorship of Amendments in the European Convention; 2.2 Data and Method; 2.3 Results: Giscard's Central Position within the Conflict Space; 2.4 Conclusion; Chapter Three: The Art of Political Manipulation in the European Convention By George Tsebelis and Sven-Oliver Proksch; 3.1 Limiting the Number of Amendments; 3.2 Shaping Amendments; 3.3 The Absence of Voting; 3.4 Discussion and Conclusion; Appendix: 3A; Appendix: 3B.

Chapter Four: Actors and Positions on the Reform of the Treaty of Nice By Thomas König and Daniel Finke4.1 The Process of Reform: From the Convention to the Ratification Stage; 4.2 The Two-dimensional Space and the Location of the Political Leaders' Positions; 4.3 Other Actors and the Cohesiveness of the Political Leaders' Positions; 4.4 Representing and Delegating the Position of Political Leaders; 4.5 The Ratifiers: Median Voters and Political Parties; 4.6 Summary; Chapter Five: Why (Unpopular) Leaders Announce Popular Votes By Thomas König and Daniel Finke.

5.1 Political Leaders and Their Announcements of Referendums5.2 Ratification Hurdles in Each Country; 5.3 Decisions along the Ratification Path: A Strategic Consideration; 5.4 The Empirical Analysis of Referendum Announcements; 5.5 From Announcing Referendums to a Reflection Period and Reform Crisis; Chapter Six: Principals and Agents: From the Convention's Proposal to the Constitutional Treaty By Thomas König and Daniel Finke; 6.1 The Setup for Intergovernmental Bargaining; 6.2 The Reaction to Failure: Delegating the Negotiation Mandate.

6.3 How Drifting Agents Enabled a Disagreeable Compromise6.4 From Compromising Agents to the Defeat by the Vote of the Irish; Chapter Seven: In the Aftermath of the Negative Referendums: The Irish Resistance By Thomas König and Daniel Finke; 7.1 The Strategy of the German Presidency; 7.2 Moderate but Well-directed Concessions; 7.3 From Treaty Reform to Constitution Building, and Back; Conclusion; Appendix: Research Design and Methodology By Thomas König and Sven-Oliver Proksch; References; Index.

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