Assemblée Nationale, Bundestag and the European Union

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The growing importance of national parliaments is one feature of the stronger differentiation within the EU. Habermasian expectations of an increasing consensus on political norms seem to be invalidated by current events. In her book, in which she draws on her award-winning PhD thesis, Anja Thomas makes an important theoretical and empirical contribution to our understanding of the social causes of this development. Analysing EU affairs in the Assemblée nationale and Bundestag since 1979, she uncovers a paradox: increasing experience with the EU leads to national institutions growing in importance for MPs’ discourse on the role of parliaments in the EU. Revisiting social theory, in particular Max Weber’s ‘old’ institutionalism, the author presents a new model that explains this phenomenon. This book should be read by students of both parliaments in the EU and European integration processes. This work was distinguished with the Prix Pflimlin 2017.