Date: 2011
Type: Book
Stability without statehood : lessons from Europe's history before the sovereign state
Houndmills ; Basingstoke Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011
HALDÉN, Peter, Stability without statehood : lessons from Europe's history before the sovereign state, Houndmills ; Basingstoke Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011
- https://hdl.handle.net/1814/18354
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
The way the sovereign state is taken for granted in political theory prevents an explanation of historical and contemporary organizations and phenomena different from this ideal type. Peter Haldén bypasses the state and the problems it causes by constructing an understanding of politics and a research model based on classical and early modern republican political theory. This enables historical analysis without anachronism and a new interpretation of the European Union. By comparing the EU with the Holy Roman Empire (1648-1763) and the antebellum United States (1776-1865), he explains that the EU's international weakness is a result of its strength as a security system that stabilizes Europe. The author argues that continued American support and embedding in NATO is necessary in order for the EU to act on the world stage and to stabilize Europe in the long run. Through these theoretical innovations, he explores alternatives to state-building in the Third World.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Through the Shadows of the State
The Fiction of the State as the Good, Natural and the Beautiful
Remedies: The Neglected Heritage of Republicanism
A Long-lived Republic: The Holy Roman Empire 1648-1763
A Solitary Republic: The United States of America 1776-1865
A Shielded Republic: The European Union 1957-2010
Republican Commonwealths versus State-Building
Conclusions
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/18354
ISBN: 9780230273559
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Initial version: http://hdl.handle.net/1814/6344
Version: Published version of EUI PhD thesis, 2006