F-Word or Blueprint for Institutional Reform? European Integration and the Continued Relevance of Federalism

Conrad, Maximilian; Steingrímsdóttir, Freyja

doi:10.13177/irpa.a.2012.8.2.3

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…And although the EP plays an increasing role in the formal election of the Commission President and the approval of the College of Commissioners (Burns 2013: 162), the EP arguably still has a long way to go before it will be more directly involved in the selection of the Commission President -possibly in the form of the transnational party groups presenting their own candidates in the run-up to the EP elections (cf. Conrad & Steingrímsdóttir 2012). 13 Consequently, the European Union is a representative democracy only in a highly indirect way, considering not least the still strong role of the European Council as an agenda-setter in the legislative process.…”

Section: Organizational Aspects I: the Eci As An Instrument Of Particmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…; cf. Conrad & Steingrímsdóttir 2012). For Thorhallsson, it is clear that the behavior of states also needs to take into account notions of "perceptual size", that is: how states which are small in relation to traditional variables are seen by others, but maybe more importantly how they see themselves and their ability to play a role in international politics (Thorhallsson 2006: 24f.…”

Section: Stjórnmál and Stjórnsýslamentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Small-States Perspective on the European Citizens’ Initiative

Conrad¹

2013

irpa

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The introduction of the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) in the Lisbon Treaty has given the European Union (EU) its strongest element of transnational participatory democracy to date. One million EU citizens from at least seven different member states can now request legislative proposals from the European Commission. This article discusses the ECI from a small-states perspective, assessing its impact on the role of small-state citizens in the union. The theoretical argument draws both on the international relations literature on small states and on James Bohman's work on transnational democracy, suggesting that the ECI is a particularly fruitful tool that gives EU citizens an institutional incentive for initiating deliberation on perceived injustices. The empirical argument presents the findings of a quantitative analysis of the organizers of the first sixteen initiatives, suggesting that the ECI is indeed a tool used by citizens from the union's smaller states. However, the analysis also shows that state size can and should be conceptualized not merely in terms of traditional indicators such as most importantly population size, but also in terms of constructivist notions of perceptual size.

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Section: Organizational Aspects I: the Eci As An Instrument Of Particmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Stjórnmál and Stjórnsýslamentioning

confidence: 99%

A Small-States Perspective on the European Citizens’ Initiative

Conrad¹

2013

irpa

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The EU’s Post-Lisbon Democratic Development: What Lessons for Iceland?

Conrad¹

2014

irpa

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Apart from the question of whether permanent exemptions from EU rules could be achieved in Iceland's (by now halted) EU accession negotiations, the EU's institutional development in the wake of the Lisbon Treaty has been used as a key argument for the conservative government to first suspend the negotiations and subsequently also to propose to withdraw the membership application altogether. In this regard, concerns about the democratic quality of EU decision making play a key role. However, as this article argues, the institutional development of the EU since Lisbon, particularly in relation to democratic governance, has been considerably more subtle than it is claimed to be and has to be seen as a continuation of a much longer process. More importantly, however, the debate leaves pressing questions about the nature of the EU as a polity unaddressed. In this context, this article addresses the question of what kind of democracy is possible in the kind of polity sui generis that the EU undoubtedly is.

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Dezintegracja, konsolidacja czy status quo? Kryzys modernizacji w Unii Europejskiej a poszukiwanie nowego paradygmatu integracji

Ławniczak

2015

Przegląd Europejski

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“Taking ideas seriously” means not only to consider their causal and constitutive role in the study of social phenomena, but also to analyse how and why certain ideas gain or lose prominence within political institutions and discourses. One approach to these issues builds upon the notion of policy paradigms, which influence the results of policy-making process by shaping the political actors’ understanding of problems that need to be solved and limiting available policy options. This article attempts to show how the ability to modernise the EU governance within the paradigm of European integration heading towards “an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe” has been called into question by the crisis which began in 2008. Two potential new paradigms of integration are considered: first one suggests controlled disintegration and differentiation of EU structures, second one proposes a reinterpretation of federalism as a way to reconsolidate the Union.

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F-Word or Blueprint for Institutional Reform? European Integration and the Continued Relevance of Federalism

Cited by 3 publications

References 38 publications

A Small-States Perspective on the European Citizens’ Initiative

A Small-States Perspective on the European Citizens’ Initiative

The EU’s Post-Lisbon Democratic Development: What Lessons for Iceland?

Dezintegracja, konsolidacja czy status quo? Kryzys modernizacji w Unii Europejskiej a poszukiwanie nowego paradygmatu integracji

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