Search

Begin New Search Political Geography Europe Publishing Institution European Research Papers Archive

51. Towards Statehood? The EU's move towards Constitutionalisation and Territorialisation

Author:
Thomas Christiansen
Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
The recent period of Europe an integration has witnessed the attempt by elites to formalise the long-standing trend towards a constitutionalisation of the European Union. The paper asks whether this process of constitutionalisation, together with a twin process of territorialisation – the development of the EU as bounded political space – can be seen as a move towards state- building at the European level. In order to address these issues, the paper assesses in turn the significance and the impact each of the two processes may have on the 'remaking' of Europe. In this context, the EU's Nordic Dimension, the debate surrounding the Turkish application for EU membership and the evolving Neighbour Policy of the Union are looked at in more detail. By way of conclusion this paper argues that the discourses – rather than the decisions – which have dominated the integration process in recent years, mark something of a departure from the previous 'post-Westphalian' path of European integration, and instead point towards a more statist conception of the Europe an Union. It remains to be seen to what extent these discourses will subsequently have ramifications in normative, institutional and policy-terms, and what resistance to the choices implicit in these discourses will have to confront.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Government
Political Geography:
Europe

52. Language Minorities in Europe: Dying species or forerunner of a transnational civil society?

Author:
Hans-Jörg Trenz
Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
Language minorities can be found as evidence of unfinished nation-building in relatively closed territorial settlements all over contemporary Europe. From a comparative perspective, different paths of accommodating linguistic diversity can be followed resulting in very dissimilar regimes of legal, political and cultural recognition. In recent years, standardisation of minority protection has taken place, with a new emphasis on the values of linguistic diversity, non-discrimination and tolerance. As will be argued, the expanding rights of language minorities must be understood in relation to a re-structuration of nation-states in Europe and a re-evaluation of difference in the course of European integration. The confrontation with internal diversity and the confrontation with a Europe of deep diversity are closely interlinked setting the conditions for the unfolding of a new politics of recognition towards language minorities. This changing minority-majority relationship and the related processes of Europeanization of opportunity structures for the political and cultural mobilisation of language minorities shall be analysed with reference to specific case studies from Germany, France and Spain.
Topic:
Demographics, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

53. The Limits of Europeanization: Regulatory Reforms in the Spanish and Portuguese Telecommunications and Electricity Sectors

Author:
Jacint Jordana, David Levi-Faur, and Imma Puig
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
The creation of an EU-level regulatory regimes for telecommunications and electricity was a highly successful political initiative of the European Commission. In promoting market liberalization for telecommunications (a key sector in the creation of the 'information economy') and electricity (one of the sectors most resistant to change) the European Commission asserted the political importance of European project. Indeed, the two new regimes are commonly cited as successful cases of 'Europeanization'. However, this paper argues that the causal link between European initiatives and national policy change is weak. Building on an emerging tradition of cross-sector research of these two sectors, and considering two most-similar European countries, the paper examines commonalities and variations in the regulatory reforms of telecommunications and electricity in Spain and Portugal in the last two decades. It applies a series of comparisons, including a stepwise comparative analysis of two countries (one a reluctant liberalizer, the other an enthusiastic one), of two sectors (a pace-setter and a foot-dragger) and of two time periods (before and after the regulatory reforms). We suggest that processes of Europeanization can impinge on the strategic capacities of European member states only to a limited degree. Spain and Portugal were able to shape their sectors according to the preferences of their national policy communities and in a context of a global shift in the way countries both within Europe and outside it defined their interests.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Politics, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Europe, Spain, and Portugal

54. The EU's fledgling society: From deafening silence to critical voice in European constitution making

Author:
John Erik Fossum and Hans-Jörg Trenz
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
The European Union is presently at a major crossroads. The Laeken process which launched the EU onto an explicit constitution-making process, has ground to a halt after the negative referendum results in France and the Netherlands. The European Council at its 16-17 June 2005 meeting decided to postpone the ratification process (by then 10 states had ratified and 2 had rejected) and instead issue a period of reflection. These events represent a significant re-politicization of the European integration process. From a research perspective they underline the need to study the dynamic interrelation between the emerging European polity and its social constituency. In this article we provide an analytical model of EU-constitutionalisation in terms of polity building and constituency building, a model that links institutional performance back to public voice and mobilisation. Our focus on determining the character of the EU's emerging social constituency goes beyond the contentious politics approach because it does not only focus on public voice but also provides a research framework for properly understanding the role of public silence. In empirical terms, this implies looking at the structure of public communication and claims-making in the EU and in the Member States. The European public sphere in relation to constitution making is then our object of analysis. More specifically, we present a research framework that will help us to shed light on the character of the EU's social constituency, as it emerges in dynamic interaction with the process of polity formation.
Topic:
International Relations, Politics, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Europe

55. Rethinking European Law's Supremacy

Author:
Christian Joerges, Rainer Nickel, Damian Chalmers, Florian Rödl, and Robert Wai
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
The clear rejection of the European Constitutional Treaty by the French and Dutch electorates seems to reflect, at least in part, the uneasiness of many European citizens with a Europe which they perceive to govern "from above" with insufficient legitimacy, and without an adequate balance of free market vs. social concerns.
Topic:
Government and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Europe and France

56. The Role of Public Discourse in European Social Democratic Reform Projects

Author:
Vivian A. Schmidt
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
Public discourse, understood both as ideas about public action and interactive processes that serve to 'coordinate' the construction of those ideas and to 'communicate' them to the public, has been central to the success (or failure) of the reform projects of social democratic parties. Certain background factors, including countries' policy legacies, problems, preferences, and capacity set the stage for reform while good ideas which are cognitively sound and normatively appropriate as well as relevant, coherent, and consistent contribute to reform success. But institutional context also matters with regard to how ideas are conveyed to whom, with 'simple' polities emphasizing the 'communicative' discourse to the general public and more 'compound' polities the 'coordinative' discourse among policy actors. This is demonstrated with examples from Germany, France, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.
Topic:
Civil Society, Democratization, and Government
Political Geography:
Europe, France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Sweden, and Netherlands

57. Mediatisation and democratization

Author:
Hans-Jörg Trenz
Publication Date:
12-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
The debate about the legitimacy of the EU and the possibilities of its democratisation has so far only rarely addressed the question of the role of the media. An instrumental approach prevails towards the media acknowledging that the so-called gap between the EU and its citizens is grounded in a communication deficit and that the EU should therefore strive towards a higher legitimacy in terms of public accountability, openness and participation, in other words of democracy. The paper discusses these technical aspects of public-sphere building from above in relation to the systematic constraints on mediatisation that result from the inertia of the existing (national) media spheres. On the basis of this, an alternative understanding of mediatisation and its ambivalent effects on the legitimacy of the EU will be developed. The proposal is that European public sphere research should focus on the more active role of the media as an independent variable that affects institutional choices and processes. Empirical results from comparative content analyses are discussed, which illustrate to what extent media have become an enabling and/or constraining factor of European integration..
Topic:
Democratization, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe