The European Union (EU) poses quite profound questions for scholars and students of the social and political sciences. This benchmark "Handbook of Euopean Union Politics" is designed to: provide an authoritative state-of-the art guide to the scope of the field suitable for both established scholars and students of the EU; reflect and contribute to the debates about the nature of the field of EU studies and EU politics in particular; and explore in detail the development of the many approaches to the study of EU politics. Its appeal resides not only in its comprehensive and authoritative coverage of the field, but also in the quality of its contributors, and the diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches included.