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Several participatory techniques have been tested in European countries, mostly in relation to local issues. The EU has recently launched the first series of citizens' conferences at the EU level. Based on survey results, this paper analyses the specific problems that derive from their transnational character. Our main argument is that, because they take place in a transnational setting, those events give rise to specific problems. In a polity that is both significantly larger and much more heterogeneous than a state, participation is more difficult to organize, as each society has its own system of values and cultural norms that impinge on the structure of public debate.

In January and again in November 2015 France was confronted with a series of coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris. These 'events' shocked France (and the world) and were presented by actors and observers as turning points. Yet, as all significant events, they give rise to a plurality of interpretations. We argue that the strategy developed by the French government is a good example of how contemporary politics mobilises the symbolic, a dimension of public policy that is often neglected. Using interviews with key advisors of the President and the Prime Minister and analyses of official speeches and performances in the first weeks after the attacks, we show how the government endeavoured to impose its framing of the attacks through rhetoric, symbols and performance in order to coproduce the 'events' as moments in which it acted decisively to unite the Nation.

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