The European Community: The Contradictions of Integration (IBG studies in geography) - Softcover

Reseña del editor

The emergence, growth and expansion of the European community has been the outstanding feature of the economic and political growth of Europe since the 1950s. This book surveys and analyzes its aims, operations and policies, and the consequences for individual states, Europe and the global political economy. The author examines the origins of the European Community, set in the context of post-war reconstruction and the USA's world hegemony. His attention then turns to the EC's formative years, from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, when its major policy framework was established during a period of strong global economic growth. Allan Williams shows how, by the late 1970s, the world's economy had entered a period of intensified economic competition and more uncertain economic growth. He considers the causes of the economic stagnation of the European Community during these last years, when the dynamism of integration seemed exhausted. By the 1980s the Community had reached crisis point, beset by both external constraints and internal conflict. Williams describes these problems and evaluates the responses to them, especially the origins, aims and consequences of the Single Market Programme. In his penultimate chapter, he looks at the community in the 1980s and the tensions between the individual member states. In his concluding chapter Williams draws together the book's central themes, notably the effect of global geopolitics and economics on the community's future.