Eternity and Expressive Values

This chapter scrutinizes the literature on constitutional identity, within which eternity clauses are viewed as repositories of the constitution's core values. It analyses unamendability as the site of constitutional expression and eternity clauses as capable of defending against attacks on the integrity and identity of the entire constitution. It also highlights serious problems with importing the sociological concept of identity into constitutional theory's arsenal. This chapter shows that the concept relies on particular understandings of both liberal constitutionalism and pluralism, as well as on a presumed pacified and coherent constitutional ethos. The concept obscures the deep and continuous contestation of the core constitutional commitments rendered unamendable. The chapter also discusses the rise of constitutional identity review as a form of resistance to supranational integration in Europe.

Theory

This chapter theorizes differentiated integration based on the major schools of thought in the study of European integration: liberal intergovernmentalism, neofunctionalism, and postfunctionalism. The chapter distinguishes differentiation from uniform integration and non-integration. It explains demand for differentiation on the basis of cross-national heterogeneity in member state preferences and capacities. It then explores the effects of externalities, decision rules, supranational actors, and integration norms on the supply of differentiated integration. Finally, the chapter distinguishes two logics of differentiation. Constitutional differentiation arises in the context of EU treaty reforms and is driven by resistance to the supranational integration of core state powers among the Union’s Eurosceptic and wealthy member states. Instrumental differentiation is predominantly a feature of enlargement negotiations and results from distributional conflicts and differences in governance capacity and wealth between existing and prospective member states.

The Future of Populism in a Comparative European and Global Context

This article deals with the recent rise of populist tendencies and their meaning in contemporary democracies within the EU, including Eastern Europe. It stresses the importance of two interrelated and interconnected processes that provide a fertile ground for the emergence of different types of populism – crisis of parliamentary multi-party democracy and pressures of supranational integration and globalisation. Populism has the ambition to address both, to solve the political crisis and defend national sovereignty against globalism by personifying politics as a way of concentrating power. This means a tendency toward a (semi)-authoritarian (but still competitive) regime and state-led capitalism. In addition, new allies and protectors in an emerging new, multi-polar global order and outside of the EU and Western sphere are sought.

Pochodzenie etniczne a tożsamości narodowe. Narody pluralistyczne na przykładzie krajów Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej

This article presents a typology of the transformation of ideas about nations and national identity in East Central Europe, with particular consideration of Poland. The author claims that in consequence of accelerating processes affecting the choice of national identity the structure of ethnic peoples is undergoing qualitative changes. Ethnicity is increasingly less likely to determine national identity. However, in spite of manifestations of supranational integration and globalization, individual nations are not declining; on the contrary, national ties primarily turn out to be more important than supra-national interests, which are diluted and not based on strong community ties. At the same time, nations are acquiring pluralist traits.

Intergovernmental or supranational integration? A quantitative analysis of pension recommendations in the European Semester

The European Semester, launched in 2011, enhances the coordination of macroeconomic policies among European Union member states. This article contributes to the lively scholarly debate on whether this policy-making cycle has empowered more the European supranational or intergovernmental institutions. Drawing on a new dataset covering all pension-related country-specific recommendations between 2011 and 2016, and employing an original quantitative method, we show that the Commission mainly follows a ‘technocratic’ approach in drafting its recommendations, which are grounded in objective indicators. As the Council refrains from systematically altering the recommendations’ logic, we conclude that, at least in pension policy, the Commission’s role in macroeconomic surveillance has been significantly strengthened in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

The European Parliament and the eurozone crisis: An exceptional actor?

The eurozone crisis has reinvigorated the debate over the requirement for supranational integration within the single currency area. With the focus of political scientists often restricted to the study of intergovernmental processes of crisis management, this article considers the role of the European Parliament during the key legislative negotiations on European Union fiscal governance reform. A comparative frame analysis of the major European Union institutions’ crisis discourse is applied. Frames are linked to macroeconomic ideology as well as to different integration scenarios within Economic and Monetary Union. It is found that the European Parliament converged around limited framing devices supporting intergovernmental fiscal discipline. Key explanatory factors here were the ideological divisions among Members of the European Parliament as well as the leadership role played by the European Council. These findings are broadly consistent with the new intergovernmentalist claims that the supranational institutions are no longer hard-wired to the pursuit of supranational integration.