A Political Sociology of European Democracy

2 A Political Sociology of European Democracy Week 7 Lecture 2 Lecturer Paul Blokker

3 Part III: The Political Sociological Study of European Democracy Specific case-studies Political sociology of elites Political sociology of social movements Sociology of migration Forms of critique on EU democracy Methodologies Introduction Governo Locale

4 Introduction Governo Locale

5 Part III: The Political Sociological Study of European Democracy Political Sociology

6 Governo Locale Political Sociology

7 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors Law and Lawyers in European Integration (Vauchez 2008) EU democracy analysed

8 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors Law and Lawyers in European Integration - Law has since the early days played a crucial role in the European integration process (a Community of Law); - The EU polity is difficult to grasp if its legal corpus is not taken into account: - the Treaties (Treaty of Rome; Maastricht Treaty; Lisbon Treaty, etc.); - directives (e.g. Bolkestein Services Directive); - rulings of European Court of Justice; EU democracy analysed

9 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors Law and Lawyers in European Integration - In the early days, law followed a law-as-a-tool model (e.g. Treaty of Rome); - Since the 1960s, EU law has developed into a law- as-a-political-model-of-integration model, not least through ECJ rulings (direct effect; supremacy EU law; proportionality; mutual recognition); EU democracy analysed

10 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors Law and Lawyers in European Integration - The European integration process is thus often understood through the meta-narrative of Integration by Law or Europeanization-through- Law); - But rather than taking the process of European integration by law for granted, a critical sociological approach seeks to understand the emergence of such a legal order (incl. European judicial cooperation; the European Constitution; the European Charter of Fundamental Rights); EU democracy analysed

11 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors Law and Lawyers in European Integration A number of crucial questions emerge: 1. Is the European integration process by means of judicialization an incremental process, leading an evermore densely legalized order and an evermore supranational constellation? 2. Does the legalization process lead to more democracy, through enabling disadvantaged groups and individuals to gain rights and access to EU regulation (e.g. womens rights; environmental rights)? EU democracy analysed

12 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors Law and Lawyers in European Integration A number of crucial questions emerge: 3. Is the Euro-lawyers self-perception close to reality, that is, the idea that legalization is a way of taking law out of the hands of bureaucrats and politicians and giving it back to the people?; 4. To what extent do Euro-lawyers and (European) judges dominate the scene as legitimate players with the right kind of expertise? EU democracy analysed

13 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors Law and Lawyers in European Integration A number of crucial questions emerge: 5. To what extent are legal players cooptated into the EU bureaucracy or actively take part in the construction of a distinct legal field? E.g., Eliane Vogel-Polsky, an activist for womens rights in the 1970s, became an expert for the EU and the European Council; EU democracy analysed

14 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors Law and Lawyers in European Integration - Generally, the role of law in European integration has been understood as a neutral and less visible dimension of European integration, dominated by experts and inaccessible legal documents, treaties etc.; - A political sociology of lawyers and law however points to the role of legal professionals and the European rule of law in the promotion of a specific understanding and project of European integration. EU democracy analysed

15 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors Law and Lawyers in European Integration - The knowledge and beliefs that are being produced... are not just some sort of esoteric or technical message, but form a set of representations of the European Union, its history and its government (Vauchez 2008: 129); - [L]awyers actually play [a variety of roles] in European affairs (as consultants or advisers for national governments or European institutions; as experts and academics involved in political or civil society mobilizations; as legal practitioners and judges); EU democracy analysed

16 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors Law and Lawyers in European Integration - A political sociology of EU law thus tries to understand how Law permeates the way actors and groups conceive of European government, its functioning, its architecture, and its possible futures (Vauchez 2008: 130); EU democracy analysed

17 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors Law and Lawyers in European Integration a. The analysis of EU law includes legal sociology that studies the specializations and autonomization of European legal professions; b. It also includes a political sociology focussing on European legal spaces, studying the production of law, but also their contribution to the construction and legitimization of an EU order; EU democracy analysed

18 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors Law and Lawyers in European Integration - One specific focus includes attention for the professional trajectories, individual biographies, and arenas of sociability: E.g. Eliane Vogel Polsky was not only a legal activist, but also a professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, trained by a former Belgian minister of Labour, member of a pro-integration milieu of Euro-lawyers… EU democracy analysed

19 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (Bellamy & Schoenlau 2003) EU democracy analysed

20 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (Bellamy & Schoenlau 2003) - One crucial element of the European legal order is the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, adopted in 1999 and made legally binding through the Lisbon Treaty (2009); - Some of the elements of a political sociological approach can be highlighted by emphasising conflict and deliberation in the Convention preceding the Charter; EU democracy analysed

21 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (Bellamy & Schoenlau 2003) - A political sociological approach could be used to highlight the Charter is being used/endorsed in political debates, how it enhances the standing of lawyers and judges in the EU, how it leads to clashes as well as cooperation between various courts, in general, how it promotes a specific view of European integration and democratization; EU democracy analysed

22 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights The Charter of Fundamental Rights is a unique document in the history of the European Union. It goes a long way towards defining values to which member states are committed. It strengthens the position of the EU as a normative community. All that is extremely important. Gone are the days in which we could have spoken of European integration in strictly economic terms. We are now in the political phase of integration. The European Union needs to be firmly anchored on a reservoir of values to which all member states pay heed. It needs to give protection to the rights of individual Europeans (Kwasniewski 2003) EU democracy analysed

23 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (Bellamy & Schoenlau 2003) - The EU Charter was the result of a increasing sensitivity to rights issues within the EU; - This sensitivity emerged for instance from: - enduring challenges of the ECJ by national courts, - a general desire to uphold human rights, - a desire to show the EUs commitment to rights and good governance, - in general, an attempt to tackle the EUs legitimacy deficit; EU democracy analysed

24 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (Bellamy & Schoenlau 2003) - The endeavour to create a European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights can in part be understood as a specific answer to the legitimacy deficit and an attempt to push European integration as particular direction, that is, a rights-based and citizenship-focussed European polity; - The Charter can thus be taken as a case-study of a legitimation policy (Schoenlau 2004). EU democracy analysed

25 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (Bellamy & Schoenlau 2003) - The Convention consisted of 62 members, from national and supranational backgrounds (national and EU parliaments, national governments), as well as included formal and informal consultations with subnational groups; - The main idea behind the charter was not to create a novel rights regime, but rather to make existing rights visible to the European citizens; EU democracy analysed

26 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (Bellamy & Schoenlau 2003) - One important dimension of the convention that preceded the adoption of the Charter was the emergence of enduring conflict over the interpretation of rights (such as, for instance, social rights); - The question arises here whether there is too much difference throughout the EU in terms of views on rights and therefore no room for consensus? EU democracy analysed

27 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (Bellamy & Schoenlau 2003) - Significant conflicts emerged during the convention: - the status of social rights - the status of citizenship - the status of the right to found political parties - the status of the Charter EU democracy analysed

28 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (Bellamy & Schoenlau 2003) The Charter consequences include: - a possible positive influence on EU legitimacy by means of the stimulation of public debate/acting as a forum; - the Charter has political consequences in terms of defining a specific trajectory for the EU (e.g. in informing the EU constitutional debate); EU democracy analysed

29 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors The Eastern Enlargement (Blokker 2010) EU democracy analysed

30 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors The Eastern Enlargement (Blokker 2010) - A political sociology of enlargement inter alia analyses how political elites in the New Member States understand national democracy as well as an emerging European democratic polity; - The question emerges whether democratization is a singular process that involves the emergence of a liberal political culture or whether, rather, a differentiation of democratic views can be identified; EU democracy analysed

31 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors The Eastern Enlargement (Blokker 2010) - The transformation processes in Central and Eastern Europe were dominated by European integration: - through the return to Europe narrative; - through official conditionality; - through increasing linkages (economic, social) between East and West. EU democracy analysed

32 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors The Eastern Enlargement (Blokker 2010) [W]e do not want to do anything that could threaten what we have agreed, and which is part of a modern European Hungary now being born, namely a modern European Constitution, modern European suffrage rights and a modern European party system (Joszef Antall) EU democracy analysed

33 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors The Eastern Enlargement (Blokker 2010) - It is particularly interesting to comparatively analyse distinct discourses of European democracy, ranging from rights-based, to value-based, to solidarity-based to participation-based discourses; - It is further interesting to explore how elite political culture may change over time, also as a result of Europeanization of the elites themselves; EU democracy analysed

34 Governo Locale A Political Sociology of European Actors The Eastern Enlargement (Blokker 2010) - Key issues around which democratic discourses on Europe and a EU constitution played out, were: - Religion; - Minority rights; - Civil society; - National identity; - Social Europe; - National sovereignty EU democracy analysed