Harmonizing Europe: Nation-States Within the Common Market (Suny Series in Global Politics)

Harmonizing Europe analyzes factors that both drive and impede the establishment of transnational markets, such as the European Union--EU, NAFTA or MERCOSUR. The author argues that the fit between domestic institutions (namely, the legal and administrative legacies of nation states, and the organization of interest groups) and the rules and regulations of transnational markets determines the degree to which transnational markets find their way into member states and become reality. By turning to the European Union and two of its directives (equal pay and air pollution), Duina explores the driving forces behind the implementation of such directives, the ability of institutional theory to explain political and social events, and the determining factors in the fate of environmental and gender policies in transnational markets.