The European Union: Politics and Policies

John McCormick is one of the most broadly knowledgeable academics in the field of European Union and comparative politics. This text offers a comprehensive guide to understanding the basic functions of each EU institution, and the broader history and function of the EU itself. Though packed with information from various faculties and fields including history, comparative politics, international relations, and others, this book is still an asset to the "average" reader. McCormick highlights the underestimated importance of the European Union, thoroughly investigating its influence within European politics, European citizenry, and the international sphere.

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For my class on European Politics, we used this and European Politics Today (3rd Ed.). Of the two, and in regard purely to the EU, this one is more preferable as it expounds with greater depth into the nature of the competing "ideologies" of the European integration movement's direction. It has several drawbacks, however. For one, it's rather outdated by now: it was published when the EU Constitution (the first one, for future readers) was still being drafted and when the 10 eastern countries have just joined (not to mention Bulgaria and Romania). Hence, it does not at all treat today's pertinent issues like Turkish membership, what it means to be a European in that respect, and what efforts the EU has made recently to answer that question. That could be fixed with a new edition. Another issue with it, however, is that a lot of its explanations on treated topics are sparse and never go beyond the elementary. Explaining the TEU, for instance, it merely lists in a bullet-tab format a handful of its consequences. To get a full picture of it, or anything beyond the basics, one has to resort to other sources. Hence, this book is a good guide to the EU, and probably one of the better ones available out there, but it is not at all capable to teach an eager student about the union on its own.

I took a course on the European Union at the University of Pittsburgh with only the dimmest idea about what the EU was about. This book, one of the books assigned for the course, is a very readable, very understandable dissection of the EU's history, its structure and its internal politics. I highly recommend to anyone reading about the EU for the first time or taking a class on the EU.

John McCormick's book on European Union policy and politics is a great book for people who want to learn more about the EU. The book is broken up nicely into three parts: Part One deals with the evolution of the European Union and gives a good background on how the European Community began in the 1950's; to the evolution of the European Union up and through the Treaty of Maastericht. Part two discusses the institutions of the EU. The EU Parliament, Commission, Council of Ministers, Court of Justice, and the European Council; the book tells how each one works and what roles each body plays in government and politics. The third and final section talks about EU policies...from Education through Economics all EU policies are broken down and analyzed in the book. I think the book is a great tool for students learning about the EU and people who take an interest in European Politics. Believe me when I say..."you won't be dissappointed."