ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book addresses the new European politics that emerged out of this coming together of West and East. It argues that European politics has changed since the 1970s from modern politics, in which the nation-state was in command of domestic politics, to what the sociologists Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck called reflexive global modern politics, in which the nation-state lost full control of domestic processes due to growing global interdependence. The book shows that the national and supranational policy-making of the European Union are increasingly interwoven. It deals with this European dimension, demonstrating that the local, regional, national and supranational levels are becoming increasingly intertwined. Any modern democratic political system needs some kind of code of practice setting out the rules of the game for institutional interaction and for the involvement of the population.
