Unpacking old and new conflicts of sovereignty in the European polity

Abstract

In the post-Maastricht era, member states of the European Union (EU) have proved increasingly reluctant to transfer further competences to the supranational level and are willing to safeguard their sovereignty. Though the responses to the contemporary multiple crisesrelated to economic and monetary policy, borders and migrations, or democracy and the rule of lawhave brought about conflicts over values and sovereignty losses surrounding the legal, economic and political legitimacy of the EU. Against this backdrop, we argue that beyond the traditional contentious (re)distribution of competences between nation-states (national sovereignty) and the EU (and its embryonic forms of supranational sovereignty), new conflicts of sovereignty involve two other key types of sovereignty belonging to the democratic tradition, namely parliamentary sovereignty and popular sovereignty. This introductory article proposes a common analytical framework in order to investigate conflicts in their multi-dimensionality.

Conflicts of sovereignty in contemporary Europe: a framework of analysis

“…As noted already, sovereignty conflicts in recent decades have been viewed as clashes between national governments and supranational institutions. As argued elsewhere (Brack et al 2019 ), this uniquely vertical account of sovereignty conflicts overlooks their complexity. Recent work around sovereignty “claims”, “games” and “practices” has started to fill some of this gap (Werner and De Wilder 2001 ; Adler-Nissen and Gameltoft-Hansen 2008 ).…”

Sovereignty of what and for whom? The political mobilisation of sovereignty claims by the Italian Lega and Fratelli d’Italia

“…To add further complexity, conflicts of sovereignty and associated sovereigntist counter-narratives develop along different policy domains, such as socio-economic policy, migration and border control, and democracy and the rule of law. According to such a multidimensional perspective, claims to “take back control” can be conceived either in economic terms, as the recovery of full authority over the national economic policy, or in cultural and identity terms, as the primacy of national culture and identity, or in institutional terms, as the need to increase legitimacy and accountability in decision-making (Brack et al 2019 ).…”

“…Conflicts of sovereignty are increasingly divisive and politicised in the contemporary political debate (Brack et al 2019 ; Bickerton et al, early view), and they are profoundly shaping the dynamics of political competition. Such conflicts have provided fertile ground especially for the rise of those political parties belonging to the variegated populist group.…”

Europe as ideological resource: the case of the Rassemblement National

“…These issues are not raised exclusively by parties such as the RN, but form part of a broader set of critical approaches to the status of democracy and sovereignty in the EU. Debates on the EU's 'democratic deficit' and its complex relationship with popular sovereignty (Brack et al 2019, Follesdal and Hix 2006, Mair 2013, and more recently, critical assessments of the EU's actions in times of crisis (Fromage andvan den Brink 2018, White 2019) are features of academic and political analyses of the EU beyond the far right. Within the French context, they also chime with strong levels of party-based and popular Euroscepticism (e.g., Eurobarometer 2019, Goodliffe 2015.…”