The Party of European Socialists: Networking Europe's Social Democrats

2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Ladrech
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Organizational Development ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Willy Brandt ◽  
Incumbent Party ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Number Of Parties

Most discussions regarding the fate of the democratic left in Europe focus on individual parties in national political systems. Beyond this level, individual political figures have strode across the (West) European stage symbolizing the principles and values of social democracy; one thinks, for example, of Willy Brandt or Olaf Palme. By and large, though, when the health of the democratic left is assessed, it is done so by counting the number of parties in European governments. This “counting game” does not evaluate the ideological attraction of these parties, but rests solely on the outcomes of competitive elections, which does not necessarily attest to the popularity of the winning party, and in many cases reflects on the deeds of the incumbent party. Nevertheless, the main point is that measuring the prospects for the democratic left has always implied a focus on the individual national political system. At the beginning of the twentieth-first century, it is now possible to speak of an emerging European left, that is, a political presence representing a common set of issue preferences actively trying to influence the decision-making process of the European Union. One of the organizational nodes of this political presence is the Party of European Socialists (PES). This essay aims to explore the PES—its background, organizational development, and capability to influence the challenges to social democracy. The attempt to form a European-level social democracy represents one of the possible futures for the democratic left in Europe. This is because the intensity of the European integration process has permeated so many areas of national policymaking. Indeed, “more so than at any point in history the fate of social democracy and European integration have become interlinked.”

Euroscepticism and the Future of European Integration

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine E. De Vries
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Public Preferences ◽  
Novel Theory ◽  
The Eu

The European Union (EU) is facing one of the rockiest periods in its existence. At no time in its history has it looked so economically fragile, so insecure about how to protect its borders, so divided over how to tackle the crisis of legitimacy facing its institutions, and so under assault by Eurosceptic parties. The unprecedented levels of integration in recent decades have led to increased public contestation, yet at the same the EU is more reliant on public support for its continued legitimacy than ever before. This book examines the role of public opinion in the European integration process. It develops a novel theory of public opinion that stresses the deep interconnectedness between people’s views about European and national politics. It suggests that public opinion cannot simply be characterized as either Eurosceptic or not, but rather that it consists of different types. This is important because these types coincide with fundamentally different views about the way the EU should be reformed and which policy priorities should be pursued. These types also have very different consequences for behaviour in elections and referendums. Euroscepticism is such a diverse phenomenon because the Eurozone crisis has exacerbated the structural imbalances within the EU. As the economic and political fates of member states have diverged, people’s experiences with and evaluations of the EU and national political systems have also grown further apart. The heterogeneity in public preferences that this book has uncovered makes a one-size-fits-all approach to addressing Euroscepticism unlikely to be successful.

scholarly journals An East‑West Divide in the European Union? The Visegrad Four States in Search of the Historical Self in National Discourses on European Integration

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-191
Author(s):  
Christopher Walsch
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Member State ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The European Union ◽  
National Discourses ◽  
The Individual ◽  
East West ◽  
The Eu

Abstract This article explores whether a new east‑west divide exists in the enlarged European Union by analysing national discourses on European integration in the Visegrad Four (V4) states. Two V4 foreign policy legacies form the basis of analysis: the “Return to Europe” discourse and the discourses around the reconstruction of the historical self. The article gives evidence that the V4 countries share sovereignty in external policies and thus have a distinct European orientation. V4 national‑conservative governments hold sovereigntist positions, however, in policy areas that they consider falling exclusively within the realm of the member state. Comparison with Western European member states gives evidence that the post-1945 paradigm changes were more profound than those of post-1989 ones of Eastern Europe. This historic legacy can explain the more integrationist orientations in Western Europe. The article concludes that behaviour of the individual V4 state seems to be of greater importance for each member than collective V4 group action. Finally, the article gives an outlook on ways in which solidarity between the Western and Eastern halves of the EU can be exercised in an ideologically diverging Union.

Verso quale Europa?

FUTURIBILI ◽  
2009 ◽  
pp. 212-217
Author(s):  
Pasquale Baldocci
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Functional Method ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Constitution ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Political Form ◽  
Mutual Relations ◽  
The Individual

- The author examines the question of how the future of Europe can be foreseen, whether it is moving towards integration or towards a reassertion of the national features of all EU member states. The French and Dutch rejection of the European Constitution in 2004 triggered a search for a lower-key, less political form of European integration. Possible initiatives to break out of the current state of immobility include two interconnected paths: one is a return to the functional method for horizontal integration and the other is a development and broadening of Europe's big regional areas. The need therefore arises to give people a sense of responsibility for European integration in order to convince governments to relinquish more of their sovereignty. Reconstructing the European Union meaning and reality, by Myrianne Coen The fall of the Berlin Wall has thrown a stark light on the loss of reference points for Europeans: those of good and evil - values, of their territory and their interests. Religion is discredited, technology has no conscience. In this context there is a reawakening of ethics. But now the question arises as to the values on which this ethics is to be based, its deep meaning. The history of our civilisation shows that such values have always been rooted in the survival of the species, which implies protection of the individual. Nowadays they are expressed in respect for human (individual) rights and the primacy given to the democratic system applied to a society conceived as a "significant space of exchange". Managing change in complete security is therefore a question of evaluating policies, taking the individual as a benchmark according to an interpretation which has the survival of the species as a temporal limit and the respective territories of individual freedom as a spatial limit. All of this has to take account of reality, assuring a dialectic management between the dynamics of what we are able to do and the meaning which tells us what it is permissible to do. Devising management structures able to reconcile security and change should thus take account of everything that is effective and ethical. Conducting a suitable policy - the necessary condition for effectiveness - entails taking account of reality as it is in such a way that it may be modified (the dynamics of the possible) while respecting others in (individual) space and time (future generations). On the basis of these criteria it is therefore a question of determining, in the light of reality and principles, the meaning that emanates from democratic decisions, of considering the significant spaces that the meaning covers and of structuring them so that they encompass mutual relations. The individual is placed in this context as a benchmark by which the planet should measure itself, and the planet in turn should be considered "for mankind", since it is mankind who gives it a meaning.

Democracy and social democracy

2018 ◽  
pp. 247-262
Author(s):  
Tony Wright
Keyword(s):  
Social Democracy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Past Generation ◽  
Hands On ◽  
The Face ◽  
Democratic Revolution ◽  
Place And Identity

The hands-on challenges involved in building up genuinely democratic mechanisms of self-government in Britain take a high profile in Tony Wright’s chapter focused on the democracy aspects within social democracy. Like it or not, Wright notes, the Brexit referendum was a remarkably successful democratic uprising, regardless of whether leaving the European Union is truly in the long-term interest of Britain and its citizenry. The defeat for the ‘Remain’ campaign underscored the weaknesses of the Labour party in the ‘politics of place and identity’, and renewed the imperative for social democrats to defend the liberal tradition in the face of nationalist and populist attacks. Despite all the setbacks that have undermined social democracy throughout the past generation, its ‘permanent revisionism’ is needed more than ever. Wright also notes that for all the problems, social democrats can take pride in the hard-fought public goods won through the years – better jobs, cleaner air, affordable health care – and forge ahead for a wholesale democratic revolution in Britain that renders a government more ‘decentralised, pluralised and participatory’.

scholarly journals Catherine E. de Vries: Euroscepticism and the Future of European Integration

2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-107
Author(s):  
Jan Kovář
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Public Preferences ◽  
Novel Theory ◽  
The Eu

The European Union (EU) is facing one of the rockiest periods in its existence. At no time in its history has it looked so economically fragile, so insecure about how to protect its borders, so divided over how to tackle the crisis of legitimacy facing its institutions, and so under assault by Eurosceptic parties. The unprecedented levels of integration in recent decades have led to increased public contestation, yet at the same the EU is more reliant on public support for its continued legitimacy than ever before. This book examines the role of public opinion in the European integration process. It develops a novel theory of public opinion that stresses the deep interconnectedness between people’s views about European and national politics. It suggests that public opinion cannot simply be characterized as either Eurosceptic or not, but rather that it consists of different types. This is important because these types coincide with fundamentally different views about the way the EU should be reformed and which policy priorities should be pursued. These types also have very different consequences for behaviour in elections and referendums. Euroscepticism is such a diverse phenomenon because the Eurozone crisis has exacerbated the structural imbalances within the EU. As the economic and political fates of member states have diverged, people’s experiences with and evaluations of the EU and national political systems have also grown further apart. The heterogeneity in public preferences that this book has uncovered makes a one-size-fits-all approach to addressing Euroscepticism unlikely to be successful.

European integration as a peace project

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicki L Birchfield ◽  
John Krige ◽  
Alasdair R Young
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Functional Integration ◽  
Institution Building ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Individual Contributions ◽  
Recent Phase ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Integration Project ◽  
The Eu

Using the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s justification for awarding the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union (EU) as a foil, this article examines the EU through the prism of being a peace project. It contends that European integration reflects a Wilsonian liberalism approach to building peace, which emphasizes free trade and democracy, but with a distinctly European twist; an additional emphasis on functional integration and institutionalization, as well as a regional focus. It also identifies three themes that run through the contributions to the special section. First, there has been a strong dialectic between the internal and external dimensions of security in the European integration project from the outset. In some ways, these have been reinforcing, but in others, they have been contradictory. Second, the European peace project has passed though successive, if often overlapping, chronological phases. These phases have been defined by different security challenges that called for different policy approaches. Russian aggression and jihadi terrorism characterize the most recent phase. The third theme is that, despite the changes in terms of threats and policies, there has been a remarkable consistency in two reinforcing respects: the persistent tension among the member states about closer integration with respect to the external security, and the tendency of the EU to emphasize institution building and to neglect strategy. The article concludes with a dialogic introduction to the individual contributions.

Ethical issues in European psychiatry

1996 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Neeleman ◽  
J van Os
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Psychiatric Service ◽  
Patient Relationship ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Unity ◽  
Individual Doctor ◽  
The Individual

SummaryEuropean psychiatrists and psychiatric service planners are confronting new ethical dilemmas as a direct or indirect result of European integration. These dilemmas present themselves at a variety of levels, ranging from the individual doctor-patient relationship to national and international legislations. We review some of the areas in which ethical questions may arise as a result of increasing European unity. Some of the issues may seem minor but are likely to have some impact on any psychiatrist exposed to transcultural practice in the European Union. Other examples have been selected not because they are common but because of their massive ethical ramifications. Attempts, by psychiatrists, to address these issues pro-actively are few and far apart.

Transformation of approaches to the right of the individual to information in keeping with European integration

2020 ◽  
pp. 423-440
Author(s):  
Oleksandr V. Petryshyn ◽  
Nataliia S. Kuznietsova ◽  
Oleksii O. Kot
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Research Area ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
European Standards ◽  
Legislative Reforms ◽  
Right To Information ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

Nowadays, active legislative reforms are being implemented in Ukraine, which are gradually introducing conceptual provisions on ensuring the right of the individual to information and aiming to effectively overcome the identified negative factors by introducing European standards in the field of the individual's right to information, however, to transform approaches to the right of the individual to information. in the context of European integration, attention is paid only fragmentarily, which in turn actualises the topic. The aim of this article is to investigate the transformation of approaches to the essence and content of a person's right to in-formation in the context of Ukraine's European integration reforms. The outlined subject matter was explored through the approbation of the system of conceptual approaches and a set of general scientific and special scientific methods. Compar-ative analysis of the legal acts of Ukraine and the European Union in the research area displayed that it is now possible to refer to the imperfection of Ukrainian legal regulation in the field of securing, regulating and protecting the right of a person to information. Five urgent steps were proposed for the most prudent transformations of the person's right to information in Ukraine in the context of European integra-tion.

European Integration

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann P. Arnason
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
History Of ◽  
External Conditions ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
Totalitarian Regimes ◽  
The Eu

Different understandings of European integration, its background and present problems are represented in this book, but they share an emphasis on historical processes, geopolitical dynamics and regional diversity. The introduction surveys approaches to the question of European continuities and discontinuities, before going on to an overview of chapters. The following three contributions deal with long-term perspectives, including the question of Europe as a civilisational entity, the civilisational crisis of the twentieth century, marked by wars and totalitarian regimes, and a comparison of the European Union with the Habsburg Empire, with particular emphasis on similar crisis symptoms. The next three chapters discuss various aspects and contexts of the present crisis. Reflections on the Brexit controversy throw light on a longer history of intra-Union rivalry, enduring disputes and changing external conditions. An analysis of efforts to strengthen the EU’s legal and constitutional framework, and of resistances to them, highlights the unfinished agenda of integration. A closer look at the much-disputed Islamic presence in Europe suggests that an interdependent radicalization of Islamism and the European extreme right is a major factor in current political developments. Three concluding chapters adopt specific regional perspectives. Central and Eastern European countries, especially Poland, are following a path that leads to conflicts with dominant orientations of the EU, but this also raises questions about Europe’s future. The record of Scandinavian policies in relation to Europe exemplifies more general problems faced by peripheral regions. Finally, growing dissonances and divergences within the EU may strengthen the case for Eurasian perspectives.

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