Description: This book uses constitutional analysis and theory to explore the transformation of Europe from the post-war era until the Euro-crisis. Authoritarian liberalism has developed over these years and, as the book suggests, is now perhaps reaching its limit. This book uses history and theory to reveal the EU's journey and highlight future challenges.
Review Quotes: "There has been much criticism of the EU's response to the euro crisis and the flawed architecture of the single currency itself. But Wilkinson demonstrates how the foundations for these problems were laid in the depoliticization that took place in the immediate postwar period, and have even deeper roots in the 'constitutional imagination' of the interwar period." -- Hans Kundnani, Chatham House, UK, International Affairs
"Wilkinson's revisionist history of European integration challenges our understanding of the origins of the current problems in the EU and shows how deep the problems with the EU from a democratic perspective go." -- Hans Kundnani, International Affairs"In his fascinating and provocative new book, Michael Wilkinson invites us to reconsider the history of the European Union (EU) as having been shaped, from the very outset, by a fear of democracy that was shaped by the experience, in the interwar period, of democracy threatening to 'unleash itself'." -- Ruth Dukes, European Law Open"Authoritarian Liberalism offers a remarkable analysis of the factors that caused a rejection of social and political conflict from European integration and, while doing so, it also reconstructs a century of European constitutional history." -- Marco Goldoni, European Law Open"Authoritarian Liberalism is an important, and, in many respects, praiseworthy contribution to the debates on the present state of the European Union (EU) and its highly problematical future. Its recourse to political economy in the reconstruction of the integration project contrasts innovatively and instructively with the usual, if subtle, stories told about the history of Europe's 'integration through law' and the promotion of an 'ever closer union among the peoples of Europe'. The spectre of 'authoritarian liberalism' is a counter-narrative which exhibits the socio-economic dimensions of the integration project and forces us to consider the political quality of European rule." -- Christian Joerges, European Law Open"Michael A. Wilkinson has produced one of the most thought-provoking books ever written on the European Union by making a compelling case that the organisation is fundamentally driven by its commitment to, and protection of, economic liberalism ... He is at the forefront of the burgeoning movement of scholars who are turning the lens on the European Union as the creator of its own malaise." -- Hilary Hogan, European Constitutional Law Review"This book presents the first deeply constitutionally and historically grounded monograph-length argument identifying the features of the EU that make it undemocratic." -- Oliver Garner and Michal Matlak, Review of Democracy"This book characterizes the EU in more than one way... Wilkinson's aim is to "open the space to develop critical theories of European integration, not as some form of external constraint, or experiment gone awry" but as a project destined to become what the title of the book claims it is." -- David Hollanders, University of Amsterdam