Europe's Burden
Promoting Good Governance across Borders

Investigates the efficacy of the European Union's promotion of good governance through its funding and conditionalities both within EU proper and in the developing world.

Alina Mungiu-Pippidi (Author)

9781108459662, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 5 December 2019

344 pages, 30 b/w illus. 14 tables
15 x 23 x 2 cm, 0.47 kg

'A blistering and contrarian critique of EU anti-corruption efforts from one of the field's leading authorities. Based on extensive quantitative data spanning both EU member states and a large number of the union's external partners, the book's findings have troubling implications for the future of EU good governance strategies - and deserve to be considered with the utmost seriousness.' Richard Youngs, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Europe

The EU is many things: a civilization ideal to emulate, an anchor of geopolitical stabilization, a generous donor and a historical lesson on cooperation across nations. A fixer of national governance problems, however, it is not. In this book, Mungiu-Pippidi investigates the efficacy of the European Union's promotion of good governance through its funding and conditionalities both within EU proper and in the developing world. The evidence assembled shows that the idea of European power to transform the quality of governance is largely a myth. From Greece to Egypt and from Kosovo to Turkey, EU interventions in favour of good governance and anti-corruption policy have failed so far to trigger the domestic political dynamic needed to ensure sustainable change. Mungiu-Pippidi explores how we can better bridge the gap between the Europe of treaties and the reality of governance in Europe and beyond. This book will interest students and scholars of comparative politics, European politics, and development studies, particularly those examining governance and corruption.

1. The blueprint
2. The concepts
3. Theories of change
4. Doctrine and practice
5. Old Europe: stagnation and decay
6. The new and the hopeful
7. The quest for the rest
8. Europe's choices
Works cited
Index.

Subject Areas: EU & European institutions [JPSN2], International institutions [JPSN], Geopolitics [JPSL], Comparative politics [JPB]