Business and Politics in the European Union

Rational choice is one of the most influential theoretical directions in contemporary political science. However, rational choice has only been applied to a very limited extent by scholars working in the field of European integration. This book attempts to remedy this lack in the scholarly work by applying a rational choice theoretical model in the analysis of three concrete cases. Basically, the aim is to investigate and model the system of business-politics relations of the European Union, which have often been dealt with by scholars in a somewhat ad hoc-ocratic and non-theoretical way. Hereby, and most importantly, the book also attempts to further develop rational choice theory as a more general as well as a more useful and policy oriented theory of political science.

Exactly the integration of narrative policy analysis into rational choice gives strength to both sides: policy analysis becomes more driven by general theoretical considerations and rational choice theory gets out of the closet of sterile mathematical equations and sophisticated statistical methods and becomes, once again, relevant to a broad spectrum of scholars and policy makers. This book want to demonstrate that rational choice has a contribution to make to improve policy-making via three concrete policy case studies, in casu three business-politics cases of the European Union. In short, by widening the domain of conventional rational choice and contemporary policy analysis, Business and Politics in the European Union, represent a significant departure for each.