Visions for Europe

This book offers a fresh look at some of the most challenging dilemmas of European integration and proposes innovative solutions to them by building on perspectives and insights from twelve classical authors in the history of political thought. The book simultaneously offers an original introduction to critical debates in EU studies and makes key political thinkers more accessible to contemporary readers by presenting present-day policy applications of their doctrines. While each chapter discusses a specific challenge for the EU, five key themes appear recurrently throughout the book: (i) the prospects for peace in Europe; (ii) the conditions for an inclusive EU democracy; (iii) socioeconomic inequalities in the EU; (iv) strategies to promote political change in Europe; and (v) the requisites for a fully-fledged EU citizenship. The authors discussed are Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, Kant, Wollstonecraft, Marx, Arendt, Rawls and hooks.