Inventing the EU as a democratic polity : concepts, actors and controversies / Claudia Wiesner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wiesner, Claudia, author.

Series:

Palgrave studies in European political sociology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

European Union--Politics and government.

European Union.

Democratization--European Union countries.

Democratization.

Politics and government.

Europe--Politics and government.

Europe.

European Union countries.

Physical Description:

xiv, 309 pages ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan, [2019]

Summary:

The EU as a democratic polity has been invented: it is a product of creative and innovative actors and thinkers that conceptualized and by and by helped to realise it, from the beginning up to the present. But the concepts, ideas, and utopias of a democratic Europe differ considerably. The processes of inventing and building a democratic EU are marked by conceptual controversies in both public and academic debates. These are the resource for the present book, which focuses on the concepts, actors and controversies related to inventing the EU as a democratic polity. The chapters study exemplary long-term and detail cases related to inventing and institutionalizing the decisive elements of representative democracy in the EU--a parliament, citizens that vote for it in universal suffrage and governmental bodies that are linked to parliament in much the same way as government is in a parliamentary democracy.

Contents:

Inventing the EU as a democratic polity: introduction

Part I. The theoretical and methodological toolkit

Conceptualising representative democracy in the EU

Towards a reflexive perspective on political concepts

Studying conceptual change via European integration: a research agenda

Studying conceptual controversies in this book

Part II. Inventing the EU as a democratic polity

Inventing the EU: but as a democratic polity or a balance of powers?

Towards the bases of representative democracy: Parliament, citizenry and government

Who did it, when and how? Treaty changes, law implementation and interinstitutional micro-politics

A dynamic perspective on the EP's power gains: studying interinstitutional micro-politics

Inventing and shaping EU citizens

Part III. The EU as a supranational democratic polity?

A defective supranational democracy? Government, parliament, head of state in the EU system

Parliamentarism and the European Parliament

European council: government, parliament, president or congress of ambassadors?

Citizenship and democracy in the EU

Part IV. The inner market, multi-level governance and democracy

Democracy in the European Union in times of global financialised capitalism

Citizenship, social rights and democracy

Parliaments versus executives in the financial crisis

Conclusion: the EU as a democratic polity?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

3319944142

9783319944142

OCLC:

1055685658