European Politics - Science topic

Your phrase, "USA<-->Europe<-->Africa : Je t'aime, moi non plus!" suggests a complicated relationship between these continents, with a mix of love and indifference.

It could be interpreted as:

- A commentary on the complex historical, cultural, and political ties between these regions

- A reflection of the push-and-pull dynamics of globalization, trade, and migration

- A nod to the contradictions of international relations, where cooperation and conflict coexist

Well played!

In the United States, another culture war is flaring up around encyclopedias.

Under pressure from liberal activists, the popular Merriam-Webster dictionary changed the definition of a woman. This is now an individual who has the opposite gender identity of a male.

By itself, characterization through negation is already original. It cannot be determined otherwise in the era of the deconstruction of the cultural foundations of society. No wonder even Biden's candidate for the Supreme Court at the hearing stated that she was not a biologist - and therefore did not know who women were.

Another war has unfolded around the term “recession”. Wikipedia began to feverishly make changes, until they completely removed the presence of two consecutive quarters with a fall in the economy from the definition of a recession. Just to help Biden deny the fact that the US economy has already fallen into recession for a longer time.

This kind of Orwellianism - with the twisting of the most basic concepts - will become more and more as we continue to be dragged into the abyss of the cultural revolution.

Dear Lucio,

Unfortunately, the realities of environmental policy do not coincide 100 per cent with the need to urgently carry out a pro-environmental transformation of the classic brown growth, linear economy of excess to a sustainable, green, zero-carbon zero-growth and closed loop economy. We know that this is urgent and necessary in order to save as much of the biodiversity of the planet's natural ecosystems as possible and to reduce the scale of the climate catastrophe that, due to the progressive process of global warming, may occur very soon, as at the end of the current 21st century or even slightly earlier. This is what the latest IPCC reports indicate. The political reality of environmental policy is unfortunately determined by various factors, mainly economic, financial, political, including the issue of energy security, international trade in fossil fuels, charges for atmospheric CO2 emissions, lobbying by large energy companies, and so on. In the European Union, too, environmental policy is determined by many factors, i.e. determinants not only of the issue of protecting the climate, biosphere and biodiversity of the planet in terms of the next few decades, but also many issues of current politics and economics. On 6.7.2022, a vote was held in the European Parliament on the question of whether gas- and nuclear-based energy can be included among renewable energy sources. The European Parliament resolved, i.e. passed a resolution, that yes. However, it was clear before the vote that the distribution of votes for and against would be very even. Few votes could prevail for one side or the other. This has happened more than once in politics. However, nowadays, due to the war in Ukraine and the need to accelerate the process of pro-environmental transformation of the economy, including the pro-environmental transformation of the energy sector, the development of renewable and emission-free energy sources, the importance of environmental policy in the issue of energy development is growing. However, on the other hand, it is not possible to build many large-scale solar, wind, hydrogen, hydro, fusion-based, geothermal and possibly nuclear power plants in one year to replace all fossil-fired electricity and heat generation plants. Therefore, it was felt that a transition period of several years was necessary, during which power plants generating energy on the basis of low-carbon energy sources, i.e. natural gas and nuclear power, could be built and developed. Consequently, this kind of low-carbon energy is formally classified as so-called renewable energy sources. Of course, we know that renewable energy sources defined in this way are not emission-free energy sources. Therefore, the transitional period that is being introduced in connection with the potential occurrence of an energy crisis in the coming months and years should be followed by energy generation exclusively from renewable and emission-free energy sources. How serious a problem this is is shown by many current examples from the current situation of the energy sector. For example, in the country where I am operating now (8.7.2022), there has been media coverage of failures in 2 power plants. As a result, prices for energy generated from fossil combustion quickly went up on the energy exchanges. In contrast, the prices of energy generated from emission-free sources such as wind and solar power are currently at their lowest. Unfortunately, the government in my country has not taken these issues into account for 7 years, the fossil-burning power industry has been subsidised from the state finance system, the development of renewable energy has been deliberately slowed down and today still 3/4 of energy is produced from fossil burning. As a result, electricity in Poland is one of the most expensive for citizens, air quality one of the worst in Europe and, in addition, the risk of an energy crisis continues to grow. The EU's environmental and energy policy is being pursued in such a way as to reconcile various strategic objectives, such as, on the one hand, the need for an urgent pro-environmental transformation of the energy sector in order to save the climate, biosphere and biodiversity of the planet and, on the other, the issue of energy security. Unfortunately, in my country, environmental and energy policy is not being conducted strategically, i.e. with long-term, multi-annual planning, but with current political considerations. Short-term planning therefore dominates according to colloquial sayings: "somehow it will be done" and "let's hope for the next elections" (parliamentary elections, which in my country are already to be held in the autumn of 2023). In addition, the emerging symptoms of the projected slowdown in economic growth, and possibly also the recession and stagflation that may occur in 2023, may constitute significant barriers to the smooth and rapid implementation of the pro-environmental transformation of the economy, including the pro-environmental transformation of the energy sector. A particularly significant crisis factor is steadily rising and already double-digit inflation. In many countries, the prices of many products and services are rising from month to month. Citizens with the lowest incomes are most negatively affected by price increases. For example, price increases for tourism services in Poland in 2022 relative to 2021 averaged 17 per cent and were among the highest in Europe. Only Bulgaria had a higher increase. The smallest increases were in Malta, Italy and Spain. In Poland, the highest increases in tourism services were at the Baltic Sea and in the mountains, while the lowest were in Masuria. In addition, food prices have been rising rapidly for a year. Fossil fuel prices have also been rising rapidly since the start of the war in Ukraine. The prices of real estate have stopped rising due to a decrease in the number of people willing to buy a flat or house, which is linked to a decrease in the creditworthiness of the majority of citizens in 2022, which is a result of commercial banks raising their lending rates. In recent months, the prices of production factors have also been rising rapidly. In June in Poland, consumer inflation stood at 15.6 per cent and, calculated as full, cumulative inflation, was one of the highest in Europe. By contrast, producer inflation, which determines the average level of growth in the prices of production factors, was almost 10 per cent higher than consumer inflation. This means continued strong inflationary pressure for the coming months. On the other hand, production growth is slowing down in Q2 FY2022, the PMI is declining rapidly, and there are increasing signs of a slowdown in economic growth forecast for the next quarters and for 2023. There is a growing risk of recession and stagflation in many countries in 2023. The aforementioned economic problems stemming from previous socioeconomic policy mistakes made since the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) coronavirus pandemic will be important factors slowing down the smooth and rapid implementation of the pro-environmental transformation of the economy, including the pro-environmental transformation of the energy sector, in the coming quarters and years.

Best regards,

Dariusz

For academics, this leaves a somewhat-muddied role in society and students' lives. As a student, an academic is not only a mentor but a guide through the various areas of our subjects of study, and this often means working with material typically seen as less pertinent to current society.

There is apparent divarication between development of science and development of society as longtime freewheeling of royal substantiation and perfection of temporal orthodoxy. we have to admit nowaday development of science indulged too much in royal substantiation & perfection of temporal orthodoxy, but almost out of normal way to push artificial ideology abut authenticity of nature forward to perfect ideological enantiomorph of ultimate authenticity of nature. For you see, nowaday authoritative intrepidity of temporal orthodoxy is all-time, social economics has to pay them all the necessity, whereas, how much living development of science can proportionably pay back to social economics? such as the Big Bang, Black Hole Theory, Dark matter theory, gravitational wave discovery, and so on. They are hoax and hoax under egotistic guide of temporal science aristocrat who are mostly the second-string geniuses of the age!!

All in all, what you said will be even worse if development of science indulges in royal substantiation and perfection of temporal under dress of temporal science aristocrat who are mostly the second-string geniuses of the age.

It's unethical, and in several coutries prohibited.

You will face fierce resistance from the goverment, so you will have to struggle for access to the relevant data. Otherwise I hope you will succeed with finishing the project. I am definitely pessimist about the future of this region.

سلامة الشعب فوق القانون

الضرورات تبيح

modernisation of the economy and institutions means to break the power of French unions who make a blockade of the economic reforms in favor more economic efficiency and export power. Note that unions and social movements are so strong that he will hardly succeed.

Dear Patrick Gubry,

here at Research Gate we are trying to evaluate international events from a scientific point of view, from the point of view of elementary logic and common sense. Why? There is a famous phrase "If in our time you do not take up politics, then politics will deal with you". I want to remind brilliant words (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Niem%C3%B6ller ) of German theologian and Lutheran pastor Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller:

"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me".

We should not wait submissively until events become irreversible.

It is highly unlikely that the majority of EU citizens want a single political union. The desire for regional autonomy and self rule is very strong all over Europe and there is still far too much cultural diversity for a one size fits all model of politics.

A confederacy of nation states is far more realistic. It may be that such a confederation would eventually eveolve into something like a single nation but it would take many decades, even centuries. Driving this too fast is causing the wave of nationalism that is now blighting many countries in Europe.

Dear Ilyass Mohammed , let me bring one fresh article about this issue that you have raised.

This is really the oldest political theme: how to immunise democracy from demagogic revolution. Public choice theory identifies the vulnerabilities of both the direct and the representative democracies and highlights the useful contribution that the political market can make. Trading arguments is not enough to check the demagogues, it in fact may provide them with the mechanism of influence.

Even as an established representative democracy as the UK can be revolutionised by demagogues who, as is usually the case, cross the party lines on a combination of national and social public goods – the promise sold to the public for its desirability with the appeal to the all-powerful provider of feasibility which is the authentic will of the people. And demagogy subverts the representative into the plebiscitary democracy, which in the end does not even command the support of the majority...

In my view the restrictive environment in trade relations would have a short term effect but in the medium and long term restrictions would be bypassed by those countries still willing to engage more in the globalized economy. The restricting nations would suffer the most.

Dear Ronaldo and readers,

My reference to "the U.S. self-perception of being the Land of the Free" is not an anti-Americanism.

I write from constitutional law, historical and financial perspectives. In my view, the U.S. Constitution is uniquely virtuous. In at least one important respect it is to be preferred even to the federal constitution of Switzerland.

Without hesitation I will say that the 50 American States bound in union comprise a great country and a great people.

This praise for the most part does not extend to the U.S. executive branch, the prominent Washington think tanks, or the Bretton Woods institutions - although I certainly do not altogether condemn those institutions, either. In Switzerland I am likewise critical of the federal government and of certain international organizations located in this country.

As the framers of the U.S. Constitution well realized, the greatest threat to the U.S. Constitution is the U.S. government. That is a unique and inspired insight. It is the responsibility of the American people to defend the U.S. Constitution. Recent failures to do so have proved catastrophic not only for the American people but also for peoples in other regions of the world.

I hope this clarifies my perspective. In case of doubt, please ask again.

When she announced the snap election, it seemed to be a sensible strategy. A stronger majority would have helped her take a stronger stance against Brussels in what will be very complex negotiations to take the UK out of the EU. Right now her minority government will have little wiggle room and Brussels should have the upper hand in the negotiations. But, BREXIT will continue. Even the Labour Party has agreed that the UK will be out of the EU.

The question is whether the UK will still be under the European Court of Justice's authority. PM May is not willing to recognize the Court while the EU believes it is necessary to protect the rights of EU citizens living in the UK after its exit and more importantly to settle economic related conflicts that will arise in the next years. Exiting the EU will create many legal problems and an impartial judiciary will be needed to address these disputes. The ECJ has a strong reputation for independence and fairness and the EU is right to make this contingent to the talks. And while May and Tory MPs have been wary of the Court's powers, it is in their interest to have a third party mediate future disputes. Of course, the UK and the EU could create an international tribunal to address potential legal problems but such a body will be very political and may create more conflicts between the UK and the EU.

The other issue, and the ECJ is a connected issue, is how much access the Brits will have to the European single market. Labour is demanding a strong connection to this market but this will come at a cost. Access to this market will not be cheap and the EU will want some big concessions. For instance, Corbyn favors Brexit because the UK will once again have an independent industrial policy that will prop British industry, specially steel. May wants access to the single market of course. But the issue is that the EU wants to preserve freedom of movement for its citizens and guarantees that their citizens will be able to compete for jobs in the UK. Remember that over 3 million EU nationals live in the UK and that close to 1 million of these EU nationals are Polish citizens. EU nationals represent close to 5% of the UK population -- and most of these people are employed, paying taxes, etc.... In comparison, around 1 million UK nationals live in the EU, over 1/3 are retired people living in the Mediterranean - mostly in Spain.

Finally, one of the surprising results was the weakening of the Scottish Nationalists at the expense of the Conservatives. We will not see another Scottish referendum in the near future and dreams that Scotland could negotiate a separate deal with the EU - which was unlikely - are not going to materialize. This does help May, but these Conservative MPs may also complicate things as their views on  a hard BREXIT do not seem to be as strong as their English counterparts. This could be interesting.

Anyhow.... these are my 3 cents.

Hello,

For Portugal, see the links to two papers with sectorial results:

thank you very much Dear Colleague Rafael Díaz

 To me the neoliberal ideology which emphasizes individualist viewpoint (rather than group or social) gives little space for resistance. More we become individualistic more will be the dominance of neoliberalism. This individualist thinking is constructed at the household level where we learn why to speak for others and same thought is being practiced in other household for us. Although we think that in this globalized world, with so many social web cites, apps we are more connected with people but in fact we are in the period of crisis of effective voice  hence less resistance for neoliberalism. 

Thank you very much! My presentation went well. (2015)

Dear Hasitha,

Thanks for adding to my collection of John Martin references. It didn't show up in my original searches.

However, a quick look at the PDF sampler you posted shows that it's all modern short stories and while they might say a little on modern interpretations of Martin's ideas, (at a stretch, perhaps even a modern view on Martin's politics), the full-length book seems to be unavailable - even though a kindle copy is mentioned in Amazon reviews but not offered by Amazon (copyright issues?).

Not only does Amazon say that the hardcopy is not available at present, I can't locate 2/H copies on AbeBooks or eBay either, so unable to check beyond the sampler.

Regards - Paul

Georgios Varouxakis'Liberty Abroad: JS Mill on International Relations has a chapter on Mill's view of empire.

Dear Sebastian,

Thank you for your upvote.

Do not be disappointed if this important discussion will not generate great interest. I experienced the same with some of my questions related to both world wars. Somehow, elapsed time of very relevant human events diminishes the interest for further analysis of eventual lessons we could extract from the past.

So allow me to go further in my previous comments.

It was Alexander Dumas (father) who coined the expression "cherchez la femme" to denote that in most crimes, no matter what the mystery is, a woman (read sex) is often the root cause. 

I paraphrase this outstanding writer by stating that "cherchez la cupidité" (seek human greed) to explain the causes of most wars.

Let me offer two pertinent examples:

The real cause for WWI was not the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. In the words of Boris Johnson (a British politician, and journalist) "It is a sad but undeniable fact that the First World War – in all its murderous horror – was overwhelmingly the result of German expansionism and aggression".

Surprised? Well don't be, because it is fair to say that the real cause of WWII was the expansionist program conceived by Hitler, called the "seek for Lebensraum."

Why am I presenting this thesis? Because the real cause of an eventual world-wide deflagration will most likely be the financial markets and the armaments industries hunger for more and more profits at the expense of millions (maybe billions) of human deaths.

In the turbulent times we live, what the Muslim terrorist may not realize - given their religious believes - is that they could easily become the triggers (and excuse) for WWIII.

As you see, history may not repeat itself - an issue you well raise in your questioning - but humans always commit the same mistakes. Nowadays, technology advances at exponential rates, but historically and sadly humanism and reason remained almost at a flat plateau.

And it is with human emotions, not reasoning, that warmongers play their games. Remember, it was Hitler who detected that the destroyed (in WWI) German industry was ready to sponsor his mad plan to conquer Europe.

Be well

Tom

Hi Patricia,

one last thing:  http://www.nato.int/docu/review/2016/Also-in-2016/nato-defence-cyber-resilience/EN/index.htm?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NATO%20Update13&utm_content=NATO%20Update13+CID_bce62128c0e48c6ab337443e6a73e055&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=NATO%20REVIEW%20Resilience%20a%20core%20element%20of%20collective%20defence.  That is the weblink for the NATO review; it is an essay on resiliency in case you haven't seen it.

Not sure what you mean Sarah. Some of the many problems associated with the use of one dominant language in the EU  are discussed eg in my article Language competition in European Community institutions, 2003. If useful I can send it to you- kbwayalat@gmail.com

As we say in the US, "If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck and looks like a duck, it probably is a duck." (smile)

In the UK a number of large and small industries have started using lean and six sigma. Public sector organisations like NHS in particular are involved in several lean and six sigma projects. You may also refer to following papers on lean and six sigma that will give you a broad overview of what companies in EU/UK think about these tools

Belekoukias, I., Garza-Reyes, J. A., & Kumar, V. (2014). The impact of lean methods and tools on the operational performance of manufacturing organisations. International Journal of Production Research, 52(18), 5346-5366.

L. Kirham, J. A. Garza-Reyes, V. Kumar, and J. Antony, (2014), Prioritisation of operations improvement projects in the European manufacturing industry, International Journal of Production Research, 52 (18 ), 5323-5345

J. H. Lee, J. A. Garza-Reyes, V. Kumar, L. Rocha-Lona, N. Mishra, (2013), A comparative study of the implementation status of Lean Six Sigma in South Korea and the UK, Advances in Sustainable and Competitive Manufacturing Systems, Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering, 1489-1502

S. Withers, J. A. Garza-Reyes, V. Kumar, and L. Rocha-Lona, (2013), A Case Study Improvement of a Testing Process by Combining Lean Management, Industrial Engineering and Automation Methods, International Journal of Engineering and Technology Innovation (IJETI), 3 (3), 134-143

P.J. Byrne, V. Kumar, and M. Brady, (2013), The Role of Process Improvement in Healthcare: A Case Study of A Large Irish Hospital, 20th International Annual European Operations Management Academy (EurOMA) conference,  7th-12th June 2013, Dublin, Ireland

Mr Gupta,

The previous respondent has given you lots of information. If that is not enough, here is another: http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm... actually this site is the root site.

The document MEMO-15-4928_EN.pdf obtainable at the EU site compares the different countries of the EU and it includes some data from the US, the BRICS countries, Australia and Canada to name a few.

Historically speaking, another policy aspect to look into is state support of national airlines for the purpose of building a national identity. In the process of improving air transport infrastructure, image-building objectives could be fulfilled--or at least that's what the objective was. I link to an article discussing such efforts in Southeast Asia.

Beyers, J., Eising, R., & Maloney, W. A. (2013). Interest group politics in Europe: lessons from EU studies and comparative politics. Routledge.

Beyers, J., & Braun, C. (2014). Ties that count: explaining interest group access to policymakers. Journal of Public Policy, 34(01), 93-121.

LaPira, T., Thomas, H. F., & Baumgartner, F. (2012). The two worlds of lobbying: the core-periphery structure of the interest group system. Available at SSRN 2245065.

Hojnacki, M., Kimball, D. C., Baumgartner, F. R., Berry, J. M., & Leech, B. L. (2012). Studying organizational advocacy and influence: Reexamining interest group research. Annual Review of Political Science, 15, 379-399.

Greenwood, J. (2011). Interest representation in the European Union. Palgrave Macmillan.

Klüver, H. (2013). Lobbying in the European Union: interest groups, lobbying coalitions, and policy change. Oxford University Press.

Coen, D., & Katsaitis, A. (2013). Chameleon pluralism in the EU: an empirical study of the European Commission interest group density and diversity across policy domains. Journal of European Public Policy, 20(8), 1104-1119.

Berkhout, J., & Lowery, D. (2010). The changing demography of the EU interest system since 1990. European Union Politics, 11(3), 447-461.

Klüver, H. (2011). The contextual nature of lobbying: Explaining lobbying success in the European Union. European Union Politics, 1465116511413163.

Klüver, H., Mahoney, C., & Opper, M. (2015). Framing in context: how interest groups employ framing to lobby the European Commission. Journal of European Public Policy, 22(4), 481-498.

Giger, N., & Klüver, H. (2015). Voting Against Your Constituents? How Lobbying Affects Representation. American Journal of Political Science.

Berkhout, J., Carroll, B. J., Braun, C., Chalmers, A. W., Destrooper, T., Lowery, D., ... & Rasmussen, A. (2015). Interest organizations across economic sectors: explaining interest group density in the European Union. Journal of European Public Policy, 22(4), 462-480.

De Bruycker, I., & Beyers, J. (2015). Balanced or biased? Interest groups and legislative lobbying in the European news media. Political Communication, (ahead-of-print), 1-22.

Beyers, J., Dür, A., Marshall, D., & Wonka, A. (2014). Policy-centred sampling in interest group research: Lessons from the INTEREURO project. Interest Groups & Advocacy, 3(2), 160-173.

Binderkrantz, A. S., Christiansen, P. M., & Pedersen, H. H. (2015). Interest group access to the bureaucracy, parliament, and the media. Governance, 28(1), 95-112.

Chalmers, A. W., & Shotton, P. A. (2015). Changing the Face of Advocacy? Explaining Interest Organizations’ Use of Social Media Strategies. Political Communication, 1-18.

Tatham, M. (2015). Regional Voices in the European Union: Subnational Influence in Multilevel Politics. International Studies Quarterly.

Weiler, F., & Brändli, M. (2015). Inside versus outside lobbying: How the institutional framework shapes the lobbying behaviour of interest groups. European Journal of Political Research, 54(4), 745-766.

Pedersen, M. J. (2015). Neglecting results? A critical view of the literature on organised interests in the European Union. Journal of Public Affairs.

This is an old debate. In terms of the legislative process, I would defend it is the Council who has the upper hand. There is a strategic asymmetry in the balance of power between the Council and the EP based on the structure of the Ordinary Procedure and in how the EP and Council are composed . On the other hand, the Commission is the body that initiates legislation, but it does not adopts it. This means that the Commission is always constrained by the choice set of the Council and the EP. 

There is another book by Antje Wiener and Thomas Diez "European Integration Theory". I have not read it but Antje is very respected on the subject (and the same is probably true for Prof. Diez but I don't know him personally).

Some of the information you are looking for is in my article "The Past, Present, and Future of EU Enlargement". For example, the EU - in cooperation with the candidate country governments - opened "Info Points" in many larger and smaller towns across the CEECs to provide easy access to information about European integration. The Commission also funded training for legal professionals and other interested private sector professionals across the CEECs, much of it in the context of PHARE. I don't have details about support for NGOs but, as one example, the EU did support the creation of European Communities Studies Associations (local ECSA groups) among academics and funded the creation of Jean Monnet Chairs for professors in law, political science, economics, and European history in the CEECs, as well as European Union Documentation Centers either at university or national libraries. I hope this will help...

Have you looked at the EU's own impact statement studies. Not public opinion, but highly informative?

Dear @Helena, your country is at the south west of the European continent, so You did not have a chance yet to see this exodus. My country is on most of their routes to EU. They enter from Greece over Macedonia, Bulgaria..., and they get all possible help here. After few days, they are going to the border of Hungary!!! 13 meter high fence on the border! 

My country is not the member of EU, but we get the immigrants from EU countries (Greece, Bulgaria) and EU prevent immigrants to enter EU (Hungary)! This is very serious situation as winter is so close.

Short term care should be due to their survival during coming winter.

Long term solution is, as @Dejenie has stated, to solve the basic problems in their countries of origin and their integration in society without borders (is it EU)! It is a long term process. Here we do have large-scale migration of peoples!

Hi Noelia!

You may take a look at these books:

David Coen and Jeremy Richardson (eds.) Lobbying the European Union (Oxford University Press, 2009), as already suggested by Ali.

Laurie Buonanno and Neill Nugent, Policies and Policy Processes of the European Union (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

Tannelie Blom and Sophie Vanhoonacker (eds) The Politics of Information: The Case of the European Union (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

Heike Kluver, Lobbying in the European Union: Interest Groups, Lobbying Coalitions and Policy Change (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).

There is a PhD piece of research which I am the supervisor. Some of its results are going to be published soon, I hope. The final timetable to end this thesis is March of 2016. The PhD candidate's name is Sabrina Areco Miranda. Her e-mail is sabrinaareeco@gmail.com

Her research deals with Antonio Gramsci´s thought and Italian reception on jacobinism. Her analysis deals with French authors who worte on the theme, such as Mathiez. There is a little text of her on Gramsci and jacobinism in the following link:

It is written in Portuguese but it can be understood with Google translator.

If there are any doubts, you can send me a message.

My hunch is that the European Social Survey is probably indeed the best bet for you. You might also want to have a look at the World Values Survey. These are the only other major comparative surveys of this nature apart from Eurobarometer, EES and CSES that I am aware of.

It is a very new party in Spain, I think there is not  literature in English. You can also read about Podemos on Financial Times: www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ecca8824-b7a3-11e4-981d-00144feab7de.html#sl

The “early warning mechanism” reinforces the position of National Parliaments regarding the subsidiarity principle.

This sysem or mechanism is regulated in the Protocolo (No 2) of the Treaty of European Union, on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. I think that it is important to note the extension of the documents to provide to National Parliaments, and the power of National Parliaments to send a reasoned opinion stating why it considers that the draft in question does not comply with the principle of subsidiarity... Articles 6 and 7 of the Protocol are very important to see how the Early Warning System of the Lisbon Treaty works

PROTOCOL (No 2)

ON THE APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY

THE HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES,

WISHING to ensure that decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizens of the Union,

RESOLVED to establish the conditions for the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, as laid down in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union, and to establish a system for monitoring the application of those principles,

HAVE AGREED UPON the following provisions, which shall be annexed to the Treaty on European Union and to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union:

Article 1

Each institution shall ensure constant respect for the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, as laid down in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union.

Article 2

Before proposing legislative acts, the Commission shall consult widely. Such consultations shall, where appropriate, take into account the regional and local dimension of the action envisaged. In cases of exceptional urgency, the Commission shall not conduct such consultations. It shall give reasons for its decision in its proposal.

Article 3

For the purposes of this Protocol, "draft legislative acts" shall mean proposals from the Commission, initiatives from a group of Member States, initiatives from the European Parliament, requests from the Court of Justice, recommendations from the European Central Bank and requests from the European Investment Bank for the adoption of a legislative act.

Article 4

The Commission shall forward its draft legislative acts and its amended drafts to national Parliaments at the same time as to the Union legislator.

The European Parliament shall forward its draft legislative acts and its amended drafts to national Parliaments.

The Council shall forward draft legislative acts originating from a group of Member States, the Court of Justice, the European Central Bank or the European Investment Bank and amended drafts to national Parliaments.

Upon adoption, legislative resolutions of the European Parliament and positions of the Council shall be forwarded by them to national Parliaments.

Article 5

Draft legislative acts shall be justified with regard to the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. Any draft legislative act should contain a detailed statement making it possible to appraise compliance with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. This statement should contain some assessment of the proposal's financial impact and, in the case of a directive, of its implications for the rules to be put in place by Member States, including, where necessary, the regional legislation. The reasons for concluding that a Union objective can be better achieved at Union level shall be substantiated by qualitative and, wherever possible, quantitative indicators. Draft legislative acts shall take account of the need for any burden, whether financial or administrative, falling upon the Union, national governments, regional or local authorities, economic operators and citizens, to be minimised and commensurate with the objective to be achieved.

Article 6

Any national Parliament or any chamber of a national Parliament may, within eight weeks from the date of transmission of a draft legislative act, in the official languages of the Union, send to the Presidents of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission a reasoned opinion stating why it considers that the draft in question does not comply with the principle of subsidiarity. It will be for each national Parliament or each chamber of a national Parliament to consult, where appropriate, regional parliaments with legislative powers.

If the draft legislative act originates from a group of Member States, the President of the Council shall forward the opinion to the governments of those Member States.

If the draft legislative act originates from the Court of Justice, the European Central Bank or the European Investment Bank, the President of the Council shall forward the opinion to the institution or body concerned.

Article 7

1. The European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, and, where appropriate, the group of Member States, the Court of Justice, the European Central Bank or the European Investment Bank, if the draft legislative act originates from them, shall take account of the reasoned opinions issued by national Parliaments or by a chamber of a national Parliament.

Each national Parliament shall have two votes, shared out on the basis of the national Parliamentary system. In the case of a bicameral Parliamentary system, each of the two chambers shall have one vote.

2. Where reasoned opinions on a draft legislative act's non-compliance with the principle of subsidiarity represent at least one third of all the votes allocated to the national Parliaments in accordance with the second subparagraph of paragraph 1, the draft must be reviewed. This threshold shall be a quarter in the case of a draft legislative act submitted on the basis of Article 76 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union on the area of freedom, security and justice.

After such review, the Commission or, where appropriate, the group of Member States, the European Parliament, the Court of Justice, the European Central Bank or the European Investment Bank, if the draft legislative act originates from them, may decide to maintain, amend or withdraw the draft. Reasons must be given for this decision.

3. Furthermore, under the ordinary legislative procedure, where reasoned opinions on the non-compliance of a proposal for a legislative act with the principle of subsidiarity represent at least a simple majority of the votes allocated to the national Parliaments in accordance with the second subparagraph of paragraph 1, the proposal must be reviewed. After such review, the Commission may decide to maintain, amend or withdraw the proposal.

If it chooses to maintain the proposal, the Commission will have, in a reasoned opinion, to justify why it considers that the proposal complies with the principle of subsidiarity. This reasoned opinion, as well as the reasoned opinions of the national Parliaments, will have to be submitted to the Union legislator, for consideration in the procedure:

(a) before concluding the first reading, the legislator (the European Parliament and the Council) shall consider whether the legislative proposal is compatible with the principle of subsidiarity, taking particular account of the reasons expressed and shared by the majority of national Parliaments as well as the reasoned opinion of the Commission;

(b) if, by a majority of 55 % of the members of the Council or a majority of the votes cast in the European Parliament, the legislator is of the opinion that the proposal is not compatible with the principle of subsidiarity, the legislative proposal shall not be given further consideration.

Article 8

The Court of Justice of the European Union shall have jurisdiction in actions on grounds of infringement of the principle of subsidiarity by a legislative act, brought in accordance with the rules laid down in Article 263 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union by Member States, or notified by them in accordance with their legal order on behalf of their national Parliament or a chamber thereof.

In accordance with the rules laid down in the said Article, the Committee of the Regions may also bring such actions against legislative acts for the adoption of which the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union provides that it be consulted.

Article 9

The Commission shall submit each year to the European Council, the European Parliament, the Council and national Parliaments a report on the application of Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. This annual report shall also be forwarded to the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.

Philadelphia, PA

Dear all, 

I am still wondering about Professor Horcher's proposals on recent developments in political theory in GB and in Europe generally, and I hope we will see some further contributions along those lines. 

I came across the following short "cartoon" analysis of the European debt crisis, which I hope may be of interest to readers of this thread:

I thought this worth a look, if only as providing some talking points. I'm sure that elements of the account may be disputed. In spite of that, the piece may be useful in getting at some features of the economic problems in Europe and their relation to political questions and problems. I want to see Europe growing again. 

This "cartoon" analysis places considerable emphasis on the idea of the need for a unified fiscal policy among the members of the Euro zone. The idea seems to be that the ECB provides a single monetary policy, but that low interest rates and political pressure brought on excessive borrowing leading to very significant economic problems for countries needing to service very high levels of debt. The connected austerity policies have proved very burdensome in several European countries. In the past, Euro zone constraints upon national fiscal policies have prove ineffective, but these have been insisted upon as a condition of debt bailouts. 

An alternative to unification of fiscal policies across the Euro zone might be very significant banking regulation at the level of the Euro zone. In any case, it seems that all the proposed solutions have various political difficulties. (There are very significant political pressures to keep interest rates very low.) So, one might say, that there is a problem of "governability" in the Euro zone. As is emphasized by various Euro-skeptics, and which I take to be true, there has never been a successful monetary union which did not involve very significant political union. Still Europe wants to have its monetary union (and I don't think that "the Euro has failed") without sufficient political union. Certainly, the theme of European federalism has been widely resisted in recent years.  We may recall the time when "ever closer union" was a unifying goal of the E.U. 

My own sympathizes rest with the gigantic efforts and achievements of the E.U., and emphasis on problems here do not put this in doubt for me at least. 

H.G. Callaway

In this context the publications of OECD Sigma may also be of interest to you such as the following: Jean-Hinrik Meyer-Sahling, Sustainability of civil service reforms in central and Eastern Europe five years after EU Accession, Sigma paper No 44, April 2009.

Cristina and Megali, - I thank you for the very interesting information. In Albania, we are now discussing the new law on lustration, and the practices of some former communist countries are good examples to be analyzed. New Albanian Law on opening “the dossiers” is taken from the German practice, but law is not accompanied with the process of lustration, which I think is a more complex process and more difficult. Again, thank you!

Hi Shyhmuhammet,

I recommend you reading Mankoff, J. (2009). Russian foreign policy: The return of great power politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Mankoff provides a thoughtful overview of the continuity and change in Russian foreign policy since the end of the Cold War to Putin, and analyzes Russia's interactions with major global considering various theoretical approaches including theory of international relations, classical geopolitical theory, and Russian geopolitical tradition.

This book begins with an introduction entitled “The Guns of August”, addressing South Ossetia conflict, which was simultaneous with Beijing Olympics

On the following 6 chapters, Mankoff argues that Russia’s more assertive behavior since Vladimir Putin became president in 2000, has resulted from both a deep-seated consensus among its elite about Russia's identity and interests as well as a favorable convergence of events; including the persistence of high energy prices and the check on U.S. power resulting from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bear in mind that any such information is always based on survey evaluation and not actual electoral roll data. As a result, different surveys can come up with fairly different estimates of participation by age groups (on some election types, differences can easily reach 10 percentage points). This is especially the case to the extent that turnout is a "socially desirable" behaviour and we do not always agree on the specific extent to which different types of individuals are likely to lie about their vote. This is still the best we can get so it is fine to use it ,but the distinction is important to bear in mind.

Dear All,

I think this thread was started democratically and scientifically with the desire for a definition. A really scientific dispute for a suitable definition can last for ages...

OK!

If the questoin is if there will be the United States of Europe someday the answer is definitely no. The French president Sarkozy said once that France will never be the California of Europe. But there is no doubt that the integration will continue. The legitimation deficit will be declined by institutional developments, e.g. more rights to the European and/or national parliament(s).

The main problems without reasonable solutions in sight are in the structulal area. How to create a European spirit? How to create a European Nation? Eric Hobsbawm (2005) said that history has shown that states make nations, not the other way around. As long as the state is not wanted the chances for a nation are very small, dispite ideas of deliberation and other direct democracy tools.

Dear Helena,

this is a fascination question with a broad range of possible answers.

It depends on the "counter factual" world you will construct as a result of UK leaving. Most impact economically might be on:

- Trade and exchange rate movements

- Financial industry

- Labour migration.

One might make a distinction between

- Process of saying “good by” and likely follow-up turbulences (capital flight, exchange rate, interest rates, …)

- Long-term effects on location of industry, trade etc.

Should we assume UK to go back to the “status quo ante” or rather into a new setting and different future constellation?

Appropriate methodology might be scenario building.

Vague, however important might be the change in economic regulations on economic matters: Back to a more “liberal” strand UK seems to prefer (less “social policy” etc.).

There are some publications on this issue to be checked for insights and the British government is starting a process on “the balance ofcompetences” (https://www.gov.uk/review-of-the-balance-of-competences[22.07.2013 21:23:36]):

- Hindley, B. and Howe, M. (1996): Better Off Out? The Benefits or Costs of EU Membership, 99, London, The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA)

- Minford, P., V. Mahambare and E. Nowell (2005), Should Britain leave the EU? An economic analysis of a troubled relationship. Cheltenham, Northampton, Elgar.

- Geddes, A. (2013), Britain and the European Union. Palgrave Macmillan.

- Kazowski, A. (2013), How to withdraw from the European Union? Confronting hard reality, CEPS Commentaries: 1-4.

- HM Government, July 2013, Review of the Balance of Competences between the United Kingdom and the European Union: The Single Market

- Europe Economics (2013), Optimal Integration in the Single Market: A Synoptic Review - A Europe Economics report for BIS. London.

Have fun doing research on this and keep me posted – thank you!

U Brasche