Methodologies and Research Design in the Social Sciences

1
A Political Sociology of European Democracy
2
A Political Sociology of European Democracy
Week 6 Lecture 1 Lecturer Paul Blokker
2
3
Governo Locale
Introduction

• The Construction of a European Political Society
• Legitimacy
• Normative justifications
• Different views on
• Role and relevance of actors (governments,
  experts, civil society, citizens)
• Institutions and integration

3
4
Governo Locale
Introduction

4
5
Governo Locale
Introduction

• Announcement Examination
• The student will be evaluated at the end of the
  course by means of a written essay
• NB. New deadline Thursday 7 June, to be handed
  in by e-mail, by 1700 pm
• - The written essay will be of a minimum of 3.000
  words, and needs to contain a bibliography with
  at least 10 academic resources.

5
6
Governo Locale
Introduction

6
7
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Multiple Democracies II Communitarian Democracy

7
8
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy (Eriksen 2009, chapter
  4)

Stakeholder democracy Instrumental legitimacy
Communitarian democracy Contextual legitimacy
Postnational democracy Universalistic legitimacy

8
9
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy
• To constitute and give life to a body politic
  is to put some things in common. ... The problem
  of the Europeans is that they do not know what
  they want to put in common.
• (Manent, 2006 67)

9
10
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy Rather than simply a
classificatory matter, how one conceptualises the
common says much about the models of democracy to
which one wants to lend credence. Ones
perspective is laden with consequences for how
one understands the purpose of the polity and the
nature of citizenship, and how one understands
the challenges that a particular polity or
polities in general may face. It may point
towards certain kinds of institutional
configuration or regime rather than others.
(White, 2010 106)
Communitarian democracy

10
11
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy To suggest what
Europeans might put in common is at the same time
to suggest a vision of politics for the EU.
Likewise any vision of how a polity should look
is going to involve, explicitly or implicitly, a
position being taken on what it is that holds the
political community together. A debate on the
nature of the common is embedded in all
discussion of the political, and the implications
of different positions are therefore an
appropriate target of inquiry. (White, 2010
106)
Communitarian democracy

11
12
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy (Eriksen 2009, chapter
  4)
• Thus, a different strategy for legitimation of
  the European Union and European democracy is that
  of a value-based community or a communitarian
  view of democracy.
• This strategy is based on the need to further
  clarify the value basis of the EU, by means of a
  collective process of self-interpretation or
  self-identification.

12
13
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy (Eriksen 2009, chapter
  4)
• This strategy has been attempted both in the
  European Charter of Fundamental Rights and the
  Convention on the Future of Europe
• A main discussion was about the question of
  Europes religious heritage as one such a value
  basis
• Also the Lisbon Treaty contains a reference to
  Europes religious inheritance.

13
14
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy (Eriksen 2009, chapter
  4)
• example

14
15
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy (Eriksen 2009, chapter
  4)
• example

15
16
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy (Eriksen 2009, chapter
  4)
• example

16
17
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy (Eriksen 2009, chapter
  4)
• example

17
18
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy (Eriksen 2009, chapter
  4)
• example

18
19
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy (Eriksen 2009, chapter
  4)
• The idea behind the communitarian strategy is
  that the EU is a p0lity in the making, and in
  order for it to become a robust political
  community with democratic legitimacy it needs to
  stimulate the idea of a common identity, which
  can then serve as a basis for shared objectives
  and visions for the European project.

19
20
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy (Eriksen 2009, chapter
  4)
• This perspective posits that because of a common
  destiny, a common fate induced by common
  vulnerabilities, people are turned into
  compatriots who are willing to take on new
  collective obligations to provide for each
  others well-being (Eriksen 2009 66).

20
21
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy
• On the political philosophers Will Kymlickas
  account, the significance of a national identity
  and culture for democracy consists of the fact
  that it provides
• - a common language for communication as well
  as
• - a system of meaning in order to make
  meaningful choices

21
22
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy
• - National identity thus provides individual
  citizens with meaning, means of communication and
  a distinct identity. A societal culture, in
  Kymlickas terms, consists of a territorially
  concentrated culture, centred on a shared
  language which is used in a wide range of
  societal institutions, in both public and private
  life
• (in Blokker 2009)

22
23
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy
• Imagined community
• It is imagined because the members of even the
  smallest nation will never know most of their
  fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them,
  yet in the minds of each lives the image of their
  communion. Renan referred to this imagining in
  his suavely back-handed way when he wrote that
  'Or lessence d'une nation est que tous les
  individus aient beaucoup de choses en commun, et
  aussi que tous aient oublié bien des choses.

23
24
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy
• Imagined community
• With a certain ferocity Gellner makes a
  comparable point when he rules that 'Nationalism
  is not the awakening of nations to
  self-consciousness it invents nations where they
  do not exist.' The drawback to this formulation,
  however, is that Gellner is so anxious to show
  that nationalism masquerades under false
  pretences that he assimilates 'invention' to
  'fabrication' and 'falsity', rather than to
  'imagining' and 'creation.

24
25
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy
• Imagined community
• In this way he implies that 'true' communities
  exist which can be advantageously juxtaposed to
  nations. In fact, all communities larger than
  primordial villages of face-to-face contact (and
  perhaps even these) are imagined.
• Communities are to be distinguished, not by
  their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in
  which they are imagined.
• (Benedict Anderson (1983), Imagined Communities)

25
26
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy (Eriksen 2009, chapter
  4)
• A communitarian strategy is based on the
  socio-cultural mobilization of people around
  particular ethical- cultural values and the idea
  of clear boundaries between the in-group (EU
  citizens) and the out-group (non-EU citizens)

26
27
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy (Eriksen 2009, chapter
  4)
• Thus, once established, the sense of common
  identity is maintained through a system of border
  control, which excludes those deemed as others,
  and a system of military defence that protects
  against external aggression, influence, and
  control.

27
28
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy (Eriksen 2009, chapter
  4)
• A European strategy of communitarian democracy
• The active development of a we-feeling
• The identification of a set of European values
• Socialization of people into becoming
  Europeans
• A set of clearly identified criteria of who are
  Europeans and who are not.

28
29
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy (Eriksen 2009, chapter
  4)
• Communitarian forms of legitimacy
• Democracy is here about searching for shared
  values, identify problems which need collective
  attention, and make hard choices about
  non-commensurable entities
• Communitarian legitimacy then views democracy
  then as deliberation upon the common good, and
  the enhancement of solidarity.

29
30
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy (Eriksen 2009, chapter
  4)
• Communitarian forms of legitimacy
• Citizens are then supposed to participate in the
  collective quest for a common good and interest
• There is thus a strong emphasis on political
  socialization and the development of feelings of
  belonging.

30
31
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy
• Communitarian democracy as a model
• Communitarian democracy gives a priority to an
  ethic of identity (Blokker 2010), that is, the
  idea that democratic society needs a minimal
  level of shared identity
• The community is paramount and communal
  solidarity the overriding value (Rosenfeld
  2006)

31
32
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy
• Communitarian democracy as a model
• Identity fulfils various functions
• - facilitates meaningful communication
• - facilitates meaningful choices for
  individuals
• - stimulates some form of solidarity between
  members of a community that will never meet,
  an imagined community

32
33
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy
• Communitarian democracy as a model
• Modern democracies need to make choices on
  membership and its criteria
• In addition, any kind of democracy needs some
  cultural substrate (based on a common history,
  traditions and shared language)
• Communitarian democracy is about patriotism and
  a shared love of the particular of the polity

33
34
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy
• Communitarian democracy as a model
• This means that identity is ultimately prior to
  rights in a communitarian democracy
• In other words, rights are defined through the
  lens of a specific community
• Specific rights are deemed more important in some
  states than in others social rights, freedom of
  expression, religious rights

34
35
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy (Eriksen 2009, chapter
  4)
• Communitarian democracy
• Communitarian democracy is akin to what the
  political philosopher Michael Walzer has called
  Liberalism 2, which "allows for a state
  committed to the survival and flourishing of a
  particular nation, culture or religion or of a
  limited set of nations, cultures, and religions -
  so long as the basic rights of citizens who have
  different commitments or no such commitments at
  all are protected."

35
36
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy (Eriksen 2009, chapter
  4)

36
37
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy
• Benefits of EU communitarianism
• 1. Symbolic dimension Potentially tying
  citizens to the European project (reflection of
  key values)
• 2. Dialogic dimension facilitation of debate on
  European values (e.g. religion)
• 3. Collective dimension emphasis on the common
  good.

37
38
Governo Locale
Communitarian democracy

• Communitarian democracy Problems with
  communitarianism
• 1. No autonomous political sphere, but politics
  expression of national community
• 2. Depoliticisation
• 3. Diversity is downplayed (e.g. EU is
  pluralistic)
• 4. Rights are understood contextually, and less
  so in a universalistic way.

38