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"National Political Cultures and European Integration"

Gaffney, John. (1993) "National Political Cultures and European Integration". In: UNSPECIFIED, Washington, DC. (Unpublished)

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    Abstract

    [From the Introduction]. In the history of the social sciences, and especially over the last hundred and fifty years with the rise of sociology, controversy has surrounded the respective roles and influence of individuals and institutions in both society and politics. At one end of the spectrum are the 'great man' theories of history; their heyday was the late nineteenth century, but they persisted - certainly in the educational system - well into the twentieth century in countries such as the UK, the Soviet Union, France and the United States. These theories of history, describing the life and times of men such as Clemenceau, Abraham Lincoln, the Duke of Wellington, Napoleon, Lenin, or George Washington, are like fables or lives of the saints: exemplary models depicting the individual as influencing affairs, while at the same time reflecting a mythic, moral order. They are doubtless ultimately related to a religious, perhaps exclusively Christian, world view and to the concept of the exemplary life. Today, such voluntarist, individualist interpretations of history and politics have by and large been replaced by theories of institutions; nevertheless, they continue to thrive in political biographies, memoirs, and a myriad of 'inside stories' of political organisations and institutions.

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    Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
    Subjects for non-EU documents: EU policies and themes > Policies & related activities > europeanisation/europeanization & European identity
    Other > integration theory (see also researching and writing the EU in this section)
    Subjects for EU documents: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Series and Periodicals: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Annual Reports: UNSPECIFIED
    Conference: European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 1993 (3rd), May 27-29, 1993
    Depositing User: Phil Wilkin
    Official EU Document: No
    Language: English
    Date Deposited: 27 May 2007
    Page Range: p. 25
    Last Modified: 15 Feb 2011 17:46
    URI: http://aei.pitt.edu/id/eprint/7118

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