The Transformation of Citizenship in the European Union: Electoral Rights And The Restructuring Of Political Space (Cambridge Studies in European Law and Policy)
Cambridge University Press, 6/11/2009
EAN 9780521677943, ISBN10: 0521677947
Paperback, 416 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm
Language: English
This book examines the electoral rights granted to those who do not have the nationality of the state in which they reside, within the European Union and its Member States. It looks at the rights of EU citizens to vote and stand in European Parliament elections and local elections wherever they live in the EU, and at cases where Member States of the Union also choose to grant electoral rights to other non-nationals from countries outside the EU. The EU's electoral rights are among the most important rights first granted to EU citizens by the EU Treaties in the 1990s. Putting these rights into their broader context, the book provides important insights into the development of the EU now that the Constitutional Treaty has been rejected in the referendums in France and the Netherlands, and into issues which are still sensitive for national sovereignty such as immigration, nationality and naturalization.
Part I. Electoral rights in legal and political context
1. Introduction - Electoral rights and the boundaries of the suffrage
2. Political membership in and beyond the state
3. Electoral rights for non-nationals
theoretical, legal and political accounts
Part II. The Past, Present and Future of EU Electoral Rights
4. The emerging constitutional framework for electoral rights in the era of European citizenship
5. EU electoral rights since 1993
6. Electoral Rights for Union Citizens
looking to the future
7. Electoral rights for third country nationals
what role for the European Union?
Part III. The Contestation of Electoral Rights in the Member States of the European Union
8. National politics of immigrant inclusion
the extension of electoral rights to resident non-nationals
9. Electoral exclusion, models of citizenship and the contestation of belonging
10. Out of empire
electoral rights, enlargement and the wider Europe
Part IV. Conclusions
11. Conclusions - citizenship and electoral rights in the multi-level 'Euro-polity'.
'This book is a magisterial and monumental treatment of the author's chosen topic. … almost impossible to do justice to the richness of this book. What it reveals is that what people think about the idea and practice of citizenship varies both widely and subtly within individual Member States across time (and according to their different histories) and simultaneously, across Member States as they respond in their own ways to migration, immigration, globalisation, international law and in the case of the new Member States, struggle with the processes of democratisation. … the reader is constantly helped through the complexity of the material by regular summaries of what has been said, and why, and signposts to what is coming. … it is a must for the same range of scholars as the range and depth of scholarship that is brought to bear by its author.' European Foreign Affairs Review
'Perhaps the greatest strength of this book is its truly multidisciplinary nature. Professor Shaw seamlessly weaves leading scholarship on citizenship and voting rights from political and sociological, as well as legal, perspectives. This comprehensive outlook lays a strong foundation for the central discussion on voting rights for non-nationals, avoiding the inevitable lacunae that persists in any attempt to analyse a complex problem from one perspective alone. … the result is a very engaging book that should be of immense use to students and academics in a wide range of fields.' Columbia Journal of European Law
'Shaw's wide-ranging study of electoral rights in the EU will be the key reference for legal and political scholars in this field. It will also be essential reading for those concerned with the concept and practices of citizenship in Europe. Shaw's often critical reflections on uses (and abuses) of the concept of citizenship may help to prompt a re-evaluation of its place in contemporary social, legal, and political analysis.' Journal of Law and Society