Christopher Ansell

A series of food-related crises--most notably mad cow disease in Britain, farmer protests in France against American hormone-treated beef, and the European Union's banning of genetically modified food--has turned the regulation of food safety in Europe into a crucible for issues of institutional trust, legitimacy, and effectiveness. What's the Beef? examines European food safety regulation at the national, European, and international levels as a case of "contested governance"--a syndrome of policymaking and political dispute in which not only policy outcomes but also the fundamental legitimacy of existing institutional arrangements are challenged.

Is globalization and European integration transforming the basic structure of politics in European nations? Is it eroding basic institutions like national sovereignty, citizenship, social security, and democracy? Is the European Union (EU) a new kind of political institution, differing from a traditional national state? The essays in this volume find that European integration and internationalization has transformed political institutions and styles of governing. However, they argue as well that the U.S. offers important insights into the way EU politics and institutions work.

From the fall of the Paris Commune to the creation of the powerful French Communist Party, the French labor movement lurched between a pattern of ideological polarization and organizational fragmentation and one of broad-based solidarity. Ansell analyzes the dynamic interplay among political mobilization, organization-building, and ideological articulation that produced these shifts between schism and solidarity. The aim is to shed new light on the historical development of the French labor movement and to develop a more generic understanding of schism and solidarity in organizations and social movements.