Democracy or technocracy? European integration and the problem of popular consent

Wallace, William; Smith, Julie

doi:10.1080/01402389508425095

Cited by 72 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The literature on agenda-setting in the EU has emphasized that the European Commission has followed a technocratic depoliticized route to agendasetting, resulting into a 'creeping' task expansion of the EU (Pollack 1994; see also Princen and Rhinard 2006;Wallace and Smith 1995). To get attention to the issues it wants to move on and to build credibility as the actor to do so, the Commission utilizes both Commission expert committees, wherein scientific experts, member state civil servants and specialists from interest group are supposed to provide non-partisan advice, and stakeholder consultations (Gornitzka and Sverdrup 2011;Haverland and Liefferink 2012;Kohler-Koch et al 2013;Rimkute and Haverland 2015;Van Schendelen 2003;Wille 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agenda-setting by the European Commission. Seeking public opinion?

Haverland

Ruiter

Walle

2016

Journal of European Public Policy

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Historically, the European Commission has followed an expert-based depoliticized route to gain attention for policy issues and the credibility to deal with them. Given growing politicization, we ask whether the Commission might increasingly seek citizens' views and whether there is patterned variation. We provide the first mapping of special Eurobarometers, the massive instrument for issue-specific public opinion. We found a steep increase and a curvilinear pattern: public opinion is rarely invited in areas of exclusive European Union competencies and exclusive national competencies. Most special Eurobarometers focus on shared competencies. Citizens are almost never asked about expenditure programmes and never on immigration. There is large variation across the Directorates General, which is only weakly related to the amount of planned legislation and the number of expert committees. Business-oriented Directorates General are much less likely to seek public opinion. These results open up promising avenues for research on agenda-setting strategies at times of politicization.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agenda-setting by the European Commission. Seeking public opinion?

Haverland

Ruiter

Walle

2016

Journal of European Public Policy

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“…In the same period, parliamentary prerogatives were being steadily eroded 'from below' (e.g., through the process of devolution to regional parliaments) and 'from above' (i.e., through the transfer of sovereignty to supranational institutions such as the EU). Since the end of the so-called permissive consensus in the 1990s (Lindbergh and Scheingold 1970), there has been a growing recognition of the need to involve national citizens in EU decision-making on a more regular basis (Wallace and Smith 1995). Some analysts characterise this change as a shift from output legitimacy, i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While much has been written about how voters approach referendums on European matters (see Hug and Sciarini 2000;Gary et al 2005;Widfeldt 2004), little research has examined how politicians themselves conceive the issue or at least what stances on the subject they might make explicit (see Binzer-Holbot 2006). This lacuna is significant because: (a) one of the main obstacles to the legitimisation of the EU has often been identified as politicians' reluctance to let citizens involve themselves in, or simply express themselves on, the European project (see Wallace and Smith 1995), and (b) the ways in which political representatives perceive their own roles, and those of the people, are crucial to our understanding of the construction and development of the European Union (see Magnette 2003;Chadwick and May 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to refuse a vote on the EU? The case against the referendum in the House of Commons (1974–2010)

Bicquelet

Addison

2016

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Under what conditions do politicians oppose referendums especially to decide questions of European integration? Existing literature has identified reasons why governments and political parties pledge to hold non-mandatory referendums to ratify EU treaties or determine a country's participation in the EU project, and some studies have analysed the effect of voter demand and attitudes towards EU referendums. This study examines the positions politicians themselves take towards popular participation in decision-making on the EU. The paper presents a summative content analysis of parliamentary debates in the United Kingdom between 1974 and 2010, tracing MPs' arguments against using referendums to determine the UK's participation in EU integration. Our results indicate that the range of claims made by MPs in the House of Commons against referendums on European matters has narrowed over time, although opposing arguments have continued to fall into the same set of four argumentative strategies. We find that institutional arguments, reflecting a Burkean understanding of representative democracy, consistently predominate over arguments that cite practical, political and manipulation concerns.

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“…A escolha da consulta popular como meio de legitimação da integração por parte de Estados-membros foi decisão de política doméstica, em função do grau de comprometimento dos governos nacionais com a legitimidade de suas políticas (Franklin, Eijk e March, 1995;Wallace e Smith, 1995). Sendo assim, países como a Dinamarca, a Noruega, a Irlanda, a França e, recentemente, a Holanda, só para exemplificar, consideraram a consulta popular fundamental em situações variadas em que o processo de integração se intensificava e, como dito anteriormente, com a chamada da população à participação vieram também resistências e mesmo rejeições.…”

Section: Mudanças Nas Dimensões Da Política Européia?unclassified

Por que não uma constituição européia?

Tostes

2006

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Q ual é a diferença entre a atual crise da União Européia -UE, com a resistência a sua constitucionalização, e as velhas crises de legitimidade e "déficit democrático"? Por que a União quer uma Constituição, que sabemos que é um tratado, mas que uma considerável parcela das sociedades nacionais vem apresentando sinais de resistência a ela?Este artigo parte da hipótese de que a criação de uma "identidade coletiva européia" é um dos projetos de fortalecimento da supranacionalidade da União, e tanto a cidadania européia quanto a Constituição são instrumentos desse projeto. A "identidade coletiva" é uma importante esfera de pertencimento (Aziz, 2002), como o sentimento descrito por Benedict Anderson (1991) sobre o valor e o papel das "comunidades imaginadas". O único caminho de legitimação da cidadania européia é o da construção de uma identidade européia; e este é o principal motivo pelo qual os teóricos que defendem a emergência de uma European polity também vêm se interessando por questões de formação de identidade coletiva (Risse-Kappen, 2000;Haas, 1958;Deutsch, 1957). Por tudo isso, a análise dos percalços da fase de Maastricht (que cria a cidadania européia), e da incorporação do Tratado da Constituição, da recepção social do projeto de integração através das pesquisas de opinião pública e do comportamento do eleitorado nos sufrágios populares, concorre para o desenho de um quadro geral das condições e possibilidades da União Européia superar o atual estágio de crise.

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Democracy or technocracy? European integration and the problem of popular consent

Cited by 72 publications

References 9 publications

Agenda-setting by the European Commission. Seeking public opinion?

Agenda-setting by the European Commission. Seeking public opinion?

How to refuse a vote on the EU? The case against the referendum in the House of Commons (1974–2010)

Por que não uma constituição européia?

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