A Political
Sociology of
European
Democracy

A Political
Sociology of
European
Democracy
Week 1
Lecture 2
Lecturer
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Announcement: Examination
- The student will be evaluated at the end of the course by means of a written essay, to be handed in at the end (exact date will be stipulated);
- The written essay will be of a minimum of
3.000 words, and needs to contain a bibliography with at least 10 academic resources.
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Governo Locale
Introduction
EU and democracy:
– The relation between the European project and democracy is not clear-cut;
– It depends on our perception of what we think the EU ought to look like;
– But what seems to be clear is that it is not a question of either “restoration” or
“transposition”, “improbable recombinations” (Rosanvallon 2006);
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Governo Locale
Introduction
EU and democracy: summing up
1. Restoration:
The idea of restoring at the European level a democracy of the type that existed on the national level, with overlapping political community, sovereign state, and democratic order.
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Governo Locale
Introduction
EU and democracy: summing up
2. Transposition:
In this case, the attempt is similarly to transpose to the European level institutions of a representative, democratic kind. This is supposedly necessary because the framework of exercise of national democracy is dysfunctioning (e.g. Habermas’ idea of postnational democracy).
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Governo Locale
Introduction
EU and democracy: summing up
3. Improbable combinations:
According to Rosanvallon, an emergence of a new form of civil society that could substitute for the world of politics is unlikely to succeed.
Sometimes this idea is put under the banner of “governance”, when its emancipatory potentials are stressed.
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Governo Locale
Introduction
EU and democracy: summing up
Many questions remain open for now:
- what will happen to forms of social solidarity?
- what will happen to forms of national belonging and commonality?
- what will happen to forms of political community and citizenship?
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Introduction
Governo Locale
9

Introduction
Governo Locale
10

Governo Locale
Introduction
Political sociology and the EU
(according to Chris Rumford)
- political sociology is the study of relationships between state, society, and the individual;
- “the point is to begin from a different starting point and view the process of integration not as
natural or inevitable but to view it as one process, albeit a very important one, occurring within the
EU alongside other processes which may run counter to it or exist largely beyond the control of the EU” (2002: 4)
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Political sociology and the EU
(according to Chris Rumford)
- “A key element of a political sociology of the
European Union then, is that it questions the
dominant nature of integration, as currently understood, and questions the extent to which the
EU controls and shapes all of the processes taking
place within its sphere of influence” (2002: 4);
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Political sociology and the EU
(according to Chris Rumford)
- “The development of the EU and the advent of pan-European structures of governance cause us to reconsider the whole idea of society, and invite us to consider the structure and organization of social and political life in a globalized world where transnational flows and linkages are becoming ever more important.” (2002: 7);
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Political sociology and the EU
(according to Chris Rumford)
- “a sociological inquiry of European integration recasts the relationship between the individual, society, and state to take into account new levels of state power, the existence of societies beyond states, and a reordering of the role and responsibilities of the individual.” (2002: 7);
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Political sociology and the EU
(according to Chris Rumford)
- “If the EU is not a nation-state writ large then neither can European society be simply an enlarged and expanded version of that found within nation-states.” (2002: 8);
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Political sociology and the EU
(according to Chris Rumford)
- “[rather, European society consists of] a
multiplicity of social spheres and public spaces not patterned according to the logic of an overarching principle. This frees us from the necessity to study the EU in terms of either an integrated supranational entity or the aggregate of its member states... We can begin to think of the EU not as a totality or an integrated whole, but as a series of overlapping networks and diffuse power
centres.” (2002: 8-9);
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Political sociology and the EU
(according to Chris Rumford)
- “First, the object of politics is no longer what it was
under conditions of modernity. Collective political action is no longer centered on the politics of state power: it is increasingly an ethical politics centered on the expression and furtherance of self-identity.”
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Political sociology and the EU
(according to Chris Rumford)
- “Second, political and social transformation does not necessarily proceed according to previously accepted models. The politics of emancipation have given way to a politics of identity recognition in the passage from modernity to postmodernity and post-materialism. These changes have a particularly important bearing on the way we study social exclusion, citizenship, and the nature of European democracy.” (2002: 9);
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Political sociology and the EU
(according to Adrian Favell & Virginie Guiraudon)
- Favell & Guiraudon seek to develop a sociology of the European Union in order to “reveal the social bases of European integration... as well as identify effects on European society” (2009: 550);
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Political sociology and the EU
(according to Adrian Favell & Virginie Guiraudon)
- Until recently, sociological approaches to
European integration have been scattered and marginal to the debates;
- Only in the last few years we have seen some kind of sociological imagination emerging in EU studies, in particular in what the authors see as a
‘wrong’ sociological turn (that is, an emphasis on ideas, systems of beliefs).
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Political sociology and the EU
(according to Adrian Favell & Virginie Guiraudon)
- At the same time, it can be argued that there are a wide range of studies on Europe that could be used explicitly in EU studies, but so far have not:
1. Studies on the European welfare state
(Esping-Andersen);
2. The social history of Europe (Kaelble);
3. European modernity (Therborn;
Wagner);
4. Capitalism in Europe (Crouch; Hall &
Soskice).
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Political sociology and the EU
(according to Adrian Favell & Virginie Guiraudon)
- Little cross-fertilization has taken place between marco-sociological endeavours and European integration studies.
- The latter remain focused on visible institutions and policies of the EU,
- While the former often barely mentions the
European project.
- Favell & Guiraudon call for an agenda including the Europeanization of the European economy and society.
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Political sociology and the EU
(according to Adrian Favell & Virginie Guiraudon)
- There is an increasing attention to sociology in
European Studies that has emerged under the name of constructivism;
- Constructivism criticizes the idea that (European) political actors are merely moved by (national) self-interest, and emphases the role of ideas, belief systems, frames, discourses and narratives on actors’ behaviour.
- However, this ‘sociological turn’ has not changed the object of EU studies.
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Political sociology and the EU
(according to Adrian Favell & Virginie Guiraudon)
- Favell & Guiraudon make a claim for an empirical sociology of the EU. They identify a number of more (classical) sociological areas on which such a sociology might focus:
- Social stratification (inequality);
- European class-formation;
- Social and spatial mobility (intra-EU migrants);
- Social networks;
- Social cleavages and pluralism;
- Social movements, public spheres.
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Introduction
Governo Locale
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Sociology and the EU
(according to Sabine Saurugger & Frédéric Mérand)
– European Integration Studies: sociology as focussing on a ‘narrow’ set of variables: identity, culture, ideas, norms
– Sociology has more to offer to major debates in EU studies:
• Constructivism
• Institutionalism
• Multi-level governance
• Intergovernmentalism
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Sociology and the EU
(according to Sabine Saurugger & Frédéric Mérand)
Constructivism
– EU constructivism deals with: a. socialization and learning among EU institutions and member states (“logic of appropriateness”); b. formation of a European identity
(European culture; cultural identity;
Europeanization of identities).
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Sociology and the EU
(according to Sabine Saurugger & Frédéric Mérand)
Institutionalism
– Focus on the emergence of particular institutions (political, economic) and their duration and impact on actors over time
(path dependency)
distinct European political institutions (e.g. European
Parliament; policy networks; social Europe);
- emergence of networks (stabilization of social interaction, e.g., ERT);
- Bourdieuian approaches that focus on ‘fields’.
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Sociology and the EU
(according to Sabine Saurugger & Frédéric Mérand)
Multi-level governance
- Multi-level governance as an alternative description of the European project (to either a federal state or an international organization)
- Two constraints:
1. lack of attention for power;
2. lack of attention of practices;
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Governo Locale
Introduction
Sociology and the EU
(according to Sabine Saurugger & Frédéric Mérand)
Intergovernmentalism
- The EU is understood as a form of cooperation between states which are conceived as rational actors.
- The internal function and conflict in states is largely left out of the picture.
- Sociology focuses on domestic political forces and symbolic representations.
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