Ideas Of Europe In National Political Discourse

"Ideas of Europe in National Political Discourse" is part of SENT - the Network of European Studies' research project. It addresses ideas of Europe as they emerge within political discourse, in a group of national cases that includes founding states, member-states of the several enlargements, European Economic Area (EEA) countries and candidate states. The book, a product of the successive meetings of working group eleven of the abovementioned network, is a collective result of a twofold though complementary research project. Thus, the chapters start by identifying ideas of Europe as sedimented in Western history and philosophy, as well as in contemporary normative political theory and then evolve into analysing the ways in which they emerge in national political discourses on European integration. For the purpose, national political debates are analysed on the grounds of parliamentary, governmental and civil society discourses, particularly at critical junctures of integration, notably treaty amendments' debates, referenda on European Union (EU) issues and pre-accession debates.