Considering the future of European integration, this clear and compelling study explores the interplay between collective action and democracy in the European Union. Richard Balme and Didier Chabanet convincingly show that as support for broadening and deepening integration has waned, contentious and powerful social movements have flourished. The authors analyze the relationship among interest group politics, social movements, and public policy at the EU level though a wealth of case studies on regional policy, unemployment and poverty, women's rights, migration policy, and environmental protection. An essential primer on European democracy, this study will be invaluable for scholars and students in European politics and public policy, globalization and democracy, and comparative social movements.

Introduction
Chapter 1: Approaching Collective Action
Chapter 2: Collective Action and Civil Society in Europe
Chapter 3: The Making of a Polity: Interests' Mobilization around European Institutions
Chapter 4: European Integration and Varieties of Capitalism: The Brussels Consensus
Chapter 5: The European Burden: Unemployment and Political Behavior
Chapter 6: Beyond State Building: Centers and Peripheries in the European Union
Chapter 7: Collective Action and New Rights
Chapter 8: Interests' Mobilization in the Constitutionalization of Europe
Chapter 9: The Regulation of Interest Groups in the European Union
Conclusion: European Democracy and Social Justice
Bibliography

Richard Balme is professor at Sciences Po, Paris, and at the School of Government, Peking University. Didier Chabanet is Fernand Braudel Senior Research Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. He is also research fellow at the Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat and associate research fellow at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Lettres et Sciences Humaines) in Lyon.