The Democratic Function of the Public Sphere in Europe

2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 673-693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mayte Peters
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Public ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
European Democracy ◽  
European Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Eu

Democratically legitimized European integration calls for developments in culture and society—which arise naturally in the scope of on-going political, economic and institutional European Union (EU) integration—to be publically debated so they may be politically processed. The space where this happens is the public sphere, or, in the context of the EU, the European public sphere. The latter complements national public spheres. Successful integration among EU Member States is made possible by adhering to a common set of values at the same time as respecting the national identities of the Member States and fostering cultural diversity. By way of Union citizenship rights, individuals are able to make use of and actively promote the Europeanization of societies and cultures. Yet citizens are affected by Europeanization to differing degrees, with only a minority of citizens actively partaking in transnational exchange. In order to account for European integration democratically, the EU treaties hold provisions allowing for a close institutional interdependence of national and European democracy.

scholarly journals Astroturf lobbying in the EU: The case of shale gas exploration

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-18
Author(s):  
Brieuc Lits
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Shale Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The Public ◽  
European Public ◽  
Citizen Support ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Oil And Gas Companies ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
The Eu

This paper seeks to shed light on astroturf lobbying, a strategy that recently invaded the European public. Its purpose is to simulate citizen support for a specific issue whilst keeping its identity secret. The public sphere is envisaged as a constellation of issues around which gravitate interest groups that try to influence the debate, and doing so by carefully frame their messages. In the case of the shale gas debate in the EU, the question that emerged is to see whether astroturf groups convey the economic frames used by the oil and gas companies they represent, or if they mobilised environmental frames such as shale gas opponents. Results show that the astroturf group mostly emphasized the safety of hydraulic fracturing and tried to counter the environmental frames of competing NGOs.

scholarly journals Legal Regulation of Ensuring Nuclear Safety and Security in Ukraine on the Way to European Integration

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 406
Author(s):  
Sergiy Dubchak ◽  
Valentyna Goshovska ◽  
Volodymyr Goshovskyi ◽  
Oleksandr Svetlychny ◽  
Olena Gulac
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Nuclear Safety ◽  
Nuclear Facilities ◽  
Energy Agency ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Eu ◽  
The Way

The article is devoted to the analysis of legal regulation of the sphere of nuclear safety and security of Ukraine on the way to European integration. The authors drew attention to the importance of Ukraine achieving the necessary level of and nuclear sefaty and security adopted in the EU member states. The emphasis was placed on the fact that the prospects for fulfilling national obligations in the field of nuclear safety in accordance with European standards directly depend on solving the problems of ensuring the functioning of nuclear facilities, the physical protection of nuclear materials and installations as well as radioactive waste management. The main directions of ensuring the nuclear safety and secutiry in the world within the international law are considered. The role and activities of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in setting up a regulatory framework for nuclear safety and security are analyzed. The international legal framework for nuclear safety and security was discused.The legislative basis for nuclear safety and secutiry in the EU IS characterized. The issue of legal norms unification in the field of nuclear safety regulation of EU member states was considered. The principles of legal regulation of nuclear a safety and security in Ukraine are characterized. Key words: nuclear safety, nuclear security, public administration of nuclear safety and security, legal regulation of nuclear safety and security, European integration, sustainable development in the field of ensuring nuclear safety and security. UDC 35:574:339.9:349.6        JEL Classification: K 23, K 32, K 33,  Q 5

A Genealogy of Muslims Dying in France

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Nur Yasemin Ural
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
The Public ◽  
European Public ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Funerary Rites ◽  
Real Challenge ◽  
Space Recognition ◽  
Shed Light

The question of the death of a Muslim in France engenders a discussion on the forms and limits of secularisation in the public sphere. Contrary to other public institutions like schools, hospitals and prisons, the particularity of mortuary spaces lies in their nearly uncontested religious character, also recognised by the French state. Despite the fact that repatriation remains to be the dominant practice among French Muslims, the descending generations, who overtly declare their identities as Muslim and European at the same time, seek to obtain their place within the European public sphere. Yet accommodating deceased bodies of Muslims within the so-called secular cemeteries represents a real challenge in terms of space, recognition of religious identities and application of Islamic funerary rites. The regulations imposed by the French authorities seem to pose serious problems to Muslims, who desire to be buried in accordance with the requirements of their religion. In this respect the cemetery becomes a realm of spatio-temporal struggle, where subjectivities are formed via negotiations between the subjects—dead or alive—and state apparatuses. This article aims to reflect on the power struggles in the development of the mortuary space from a historical perspective. It will then attempt to shed light on the legal possibility of the construction of the only French Muslim cemetery inaugurated in Strasbourg in 2012.

18. The Europeanization of National Economies?

2020 ◽  
pp. 422-451
Author(s):  
Vivien A. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Post War ◽  
National Economies ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
European Union Member States ◽  
The Eu

This chapter examines the impact of Europeanization upon the national economies of European Union member states. It considers how successful the EU has been in promoting its goal of building a single European economy out of the diverse national economies of its member states; how much convergence has occurred among EU member states, and how much divergence remains; and what impact the economic crisis beginning in 2008 has had on the EU and its member states. To answer these questions, the chapter traces the development of Europe’s national economies from the post-war period until today. It also analyses the impact of globalization and Europeanization on post-war varieties of capitalism before concluding with reflections on future patterns of political economic development in the EU in light of the economic crisis.

2. Federalism and European Integration

2018 ◽  
pp. 27-42
Author(s):  
R. Daniel Kelemen
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Political System ◽  
Eurozone Crisis ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Specific Policy ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
The Eu

Theories of federalism can provide a set of assumptions, concepts, and arguments that shed light on many aspects of European integration. Applying the federalism perspective opens up EU scholars to a range of relevant comparative cases that provide analytic leverage and insight on the EU. This perspective also enables EU scholars to draw on and contribute to a well-established literature in comparative politics, thus connecting their findings about the EU to broader academic debates. EU scholars have applied theories of federalism to help explain a wide range of questions about European integration, from general questions about why and how the EU came together as a political system to narrow questions about very specific policy areas, to the causes and consequences of the EU’s recent crises. This chapter discusses the main assumptions, concepts, and methodologies in federalism theories of the EU, and explores how this perspective can shed light on the eurozone crisis and the crisis of democratic backsliding among EU member states.

scholarly journals Instrumental Europe

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marysia Galbraith ◽  
Thomas M. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Community Outreach ◽  
The European Union ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Anthropological Study ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Eu

Religious organisations that secularise their community outreach to gain European Union (EU) funding, border-city residents whose consumption practices exploit cross-border economic disparities, EU member states that protect their domestic labour market by restricting access to legal work and medical care for citizens of new member states, recently admitted citizens who nevertheless take advantage of increased opportunities for mobility to improve their economic and social standing, and even in some cases use their scepticism about membership to promote their personal or national interests within the EU – all of these examples point to the complex and varied ways in which instrumentality figures in day-to-day dealings with the European Union. This special issue of AJEC seeks to contribute to the anthropological study of the European Union by examining ways in which various individuals, groups and institutions use the EU to pursue their political, economic and social goals at local, national and transnational levels within Europe.

Germany, Europe, and the Politics of Constraint

2003 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Member States ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
European Public ◽  
German Model ◽  
Shaping Power ◽  
The Eu

The process of European integration is marked both by continued deepening and widening, and by growing evidence of domestic disquiet and dissent. Against this background, this book examines three key themes: the challenge to the power of member states – as subjects of European integration – to determine the course of the integrationist project and to shape European public policies; the constraints in the domestic political arena experienced by member states as objects of European integration; and the contestation over both the ‘constitutive politics of the EU’ and specific policy choices. These three themes – power, constraint, and contestation – and their interdependence are explored with specific reference to Germany. The main findings call for a revision of the ‘conventional wisdom’ about Germany's Europeanization experience. First, while Germany continues to engage intensively in all aspects of the integration process, its power to ‘upload’ – ‘hard’ and ‘soft’, ‘deliberate’ or ‘unintentional’, ‘institutional’ or ‘ideational’ – appears in decline. Germany's capacity to ‘shape its regional milieu’ is challenged by both changes in the integration process and the ever-more-apparent weaknesses of the ‘German model’. The traditional regional core milieu is shrinking in size and importance in an enlarging Europe, and Germany's milieu-shaping power is being challenged. Second, the coincidence of enabling and constraining effects is being progressively replaced by a discourse that notes unwelcome constrictions associated with EU membership.

Contesting Risk and Responsibility: European Debates on Food and Agricultural Governance of Avian Influenza

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michiel P.M.M. de Krom ◽  
Peter Oosterveer
Keyword(s):  
Avian Influenza ◽  
Agricultural Risk ◽  
The Public ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Food Governance ◽  
European Governance ◽  
European Public ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

In August 2005, avian influenza entered European public arenas as the next food and agricultural risk. As the virus was detected close to Europe, questions arose whether measures were required to protect human health and secure European food supply. This article analyzes the public debates on the characteristics of the risk and on the interventions needed. The mass media in two EU member states, the UK and the Netherlands, were studied for this purpose. With the help of qualitative analysis the debates were analyzed as they unfolded in selected national newspapers. Arguing that risks are socially mediated realities, the article discusses how struggles on risk definitions relate to different policy decisions. Moreover, it analyzes how these political dynamics are informed by the involvement of state, market, and civil society actors in European governance, and discerns their wider implications for the functioning of the EU food governance framework.

Towards an Ever Closer Union Between Residents and Citizens?

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (01) ◽  
pp. 78-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michèle Finck
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Voting Rights ◽  
The State ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Member States ◽  
Traditional Concept ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Domestic Reform ◽  
The Eu

Alien suffrage in Luxembourg – The traditional concept of the electorate – Link between nationality and voting rights – From the national to the resident worker? – The decoupling of nationality and citizenship – The transformation of the state as a consequence of European integration – Comparison to other EU member states – Consequences for EU law of domestic reform – The intertwinement of constitutional spheres in the EU

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