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Introduction We are not in business at all; we are in politics. (Former President of the EEC Commission Walter Hallstein, quoted in Swann 1990, vii) There has been a lot of talk about the European Union's so-called 'democratic deficit', by which is meant its lack of legitimacy in the eyes of its citizens. This book provides a critical analysis of the democratic stalemate in European politics. In contrast to most studies, however, this book argues that the root of the 'democratic deficit' has more to do with the domestic political fields of the Union's member
many policy areas, and it has become, unlike the elitist Commission, the voice of European peoples more than that of European governments (Nugent 2003). The European Parliament is a dominated element in the evolving European political field (see Chapter 1). The European Parliament is integrated into national political fields following the two modalities exemplified by the Finnish and French cases: annexation that extends political parties' power into European elections and differentiation that applies a different political logic to national and European elections
about the health implications of pollution in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, but they were largely seen as isolated examples. They tended to be dealt with by the creation of inspectorates, which were set up to regulate the activities of individual industries. 122 Understanding British and European political issues Two early pieces of legislation which signalled the end of an ad hoc approach to environmental issues were the Clean Air Acts of 1956 and 1968. This legislation applied to both individual households and to industry. They were concerned solely
perhaps a lifetime of unemployment unless economic conditions dramatically changed. But the project of preserving the euro had taken on a transcendent quality of its own. Southern European political elites shrank from embracing bold remedies for the economic crisis. Most were seen as involving an abandonment of the euro or else a temporary suspension for some members, or a breaking up of the currency union into several workable parts. Parties on the right and left which had alternated in office since the restoration of democracy at different stages after 1945 had too
about the place of Basque institutions within the Spanish state and appropriate means for recognising Basque difference. The book’s conclusions do not close debate about the impact of the EU on Basque politics. Nevertheless, it does identify something of what is at stake in the changing context of postwar European politics. Devolution in Spain – and indeed elsewhere in Europe – has been an instrument for political accommodation which will probably continue to evolve. Devolution can help soothe political tensions by addressing key issues at the heart of nationalist
review of Harrington’s works,97 and there were of course hints at this idea in Gordon’s discourses, but the emphasis of the Huguenots was on opposing tyranny rather than on building a workable republic, and so these ideas were less relevant to them. Nonetheless, as will become clear in Part II, this aspect of the commonwealth tradition was picked up by other French figures in the first half of the eighteenth century. Conclusion The Huguenot connection was one means by which commonwealth ideas came to play an important role in continental European political thought. The
into the evolving European political field has had a significant impact on public debates concerning not only the politics of Europe but also concerning France as a whole and its political and intellectual heritage. Since the French revolution, French intellectuals have played an important role in the shaping of European and global political discourses that centre on democracy and public debate. It is crucial to understand the links between French intellectual traditions and the broader European trends that partake in the symbolic structuration of the evolving
evolved. They frequently highlight the gap between what the member states formally aspire to in the realm of European political cooperation (EPC)/CFSP and what decision-making capacity they actually give to EPC/CFSP as a policy process. What is often missing from such accounts, however, is a reflection upon how EPC or its successor CFSP thus related to the process of European integration more broadly and what such cooperation
11 Photographing Mussolini Alessandra Antola Mussolini was the first European political leader to be extensively photographed, with his image reproduced in newspapers, posters, postcards, offices and public buildings. The ubiquity of his image ensured that his face, gestures and physical presence were immediately recognisable, even though only a limited number of people ever saw him in person, let alone in close proximity. Consequently his photographs, being accessible, transferable, portable and mass-produced, became the principal medium for the circulation of
nationalist nature the radical right has had existential and practical difficulties in accepting a transnational agenda. Consequently, radical right parties are split between several relatively small TNPs, and it is common for both the radical right's parliamentary groups and European political parties to be overhauled and renamed after every election. In mid-2016, there were no fewer than five groups: the Mouvement pour une Europe des Nations et des Libertés (Europe of Nations and Freedom), led by the French National Front; the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe, led