A-state-of-the-art and comprehensive survey covering all aspects of politics in Western Europe. The volume brings together the very best scholars in the field from the UK, continental Europe and North America.

Foreword ; Introduction: Grappling with Untidy Reality ; 1. Institutions and the Evolution of European Democracy ; 2. National Courts and the Community Law ; THE CORE EXECUTIVE ; 3. On Studying Governments ; 4. What is New about Governance and Why does it Matter ; 5. Executives in Comparative Context ; 6. The Political System of the European Union ; PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION ; 7. Dismantling and Rebuilding the Weberian State ; 8. The Age of Administrative Reforms ; 9. The European Administration: Between Europeanization and Domostication ; 10. Europeanization and the Persistence of Administrative Systems ; PARTIES AND ORGANIZED INTEREST ; 11. The Decline of Party ; 12. Comparing Economic Interest Organizations ; 13. Interest Groups and the Brussels Bureaucracy ; DEMOCRACY AND POPULAR PARTICIPATION ; 14. Contentious Politics in Western Europe and the United States ; 15. From Popular Dissatisfaction to Populism: Democracy, Constitutionalism and Corruption ; 16. Democratizations in the European Periphery ; PUBLIC POLICY ; 17. The Politics of Regulation and European Regulatory Institutions ; 18. From Industrial Policy to a Regulatory State: constrasting institutional change in Britain and France ; 19. Monetary Policy and the Euro ; 20. Recasting European Welfare States ; THE STATE ; 21. The Changing European State ; 22. The European State ; 23. International Relations, International Institutions and the European State ; Conclusion: Governing Europe ; Bibliography