Suchergebnisse

Areas of limited statehood where the state is absent or dysfunctional are rarely ungoverned or ungovernable spaces. The provision of rules and regulations as well as of public goods and services - governance - does not necessarily depend on the existence of functioning state institutions. How can this be explained? This article makes two claims. First, we identify functional equivalents to state institutions that fail to govern hierarchically. Second, we focus on informal institutions based on social trust that are endogenous to areas of limited statehood. Personalized social trust among community members enables actors to overcome collective action problems, enhancing the legitimacy of governance actors. The main challenge in areas of limited statehood, which are often characterized by social heterogeneity and deep social and cultural cleavages (particularly in post-conflict societies), is to move from personalized to generalized trust in "imagined communities" despite dysfunctional state institutions. We argue that generalized trust in areas of limited statehood crucially depends on inclusive social identities as an enabling condition for effective and legitimate governance.

Die Euro-Krise ist nicht nur ein Härtetest für die europäische Integration, sondern auch für die vielbeschworene "Solidarität unter Fremden" und für die Annahme, dass europäische Identität zu dieser Solidarität führt. Jetzt muss sich zeigen, ob Europäerinnen und Europäer – insbesondere diejenigen in den reichen Schuldnerländern – bereit sind, sich die Europäische Union (EU) und den Euro etwas kosten zu lassen und den südeuropäischen Krisenländern aus der Patsche zu helfen (allerdings nicht bedingungslos). Ich argumentiere auf der Grundlage von Meinungsumfragen und statistischen Analysen, dass Grund für vorsichtigen Optimismus besteht. Erstens hat die Identifikation mit Europa und die Unterstützung der EU während der Krise nicht wesentlich abgenommen. Zweitens sind europäische Bürgerinnen und Bürger bereit, Solidarität zu zeigen mit den Schuldenstaaten - sofern diese ihre Staatshaushalte und Bankensysteme unter Kontrolle bringen. Drittens sind Unionsbürgerinnen und –bürger zunehmend willens, sich wechselseitig als Europäer gleiche politische und soziale Rechte zuzubilligen.

The web and the social web play an increasingly important role as an information source for Members of Parliament and their assistants, journalists, political analysts and researchers. It provides important and crucial background information, like reactions to political events and comments made by the general public. The case study presented in this paper is driven by two European parliaments (the Greek and the Austrian parliament) and targets an effective exploration of political web archives. In this paper, we describe semantic technologies deployed to ease the exploration of the archived web and social web content and present evaluation results. ; EC/ARCOMEM ; ERC/ALEXANDRIA ; ERC/KEYSTONE

The web and the social web play an increasingly important role as an information source for Members of Parliament and their assistants, journalists, political analysts and researchers. It provides important and crucial background information, like reactions to political events and comments made by the general public. The case study presented in this paper is driven by two European parliaments (the Greek and the Austrian parliament) and targets an effective exploration of political web archives. In this paper, we describe semantic technologies deployed to ease the exploration of the archived web and social web content and present evaluation results.

This paper deals with two litmus tests for theories of European integration. The first part asks, how and to what extent various approaches can explain the contemporary crises of European integration. It thereby tackles the question whether European integration theories might have biased EU scholars towards ignoring evidence for (dis-)integration. While being more optimistic about the state of the Union than many EU scholars are, the paper argues for a more differentiated conceptualization of integration as a continuous variable that takes disintegration rather than stagnation or no integration as the opposite value of integration.
The second part of the paper asks to what extent European integration theories are able to shed light on experiences with regionalism across the globe. It argues that they do provide plausible accounts for the emergence of regionalism around the world. Comparing regions points to important scope conditions under which European integration theories operate. When it comes to outcomes, however, they need to be complemented by explanations emphasizing diffusion to explain why and when states are more inclined to pool and delegate sovereignty in some regions than in others.

This paper sets out the research agenda of the Kolleg-Forschergruppe "The Transformative Power of Europe. The European Union and the Diffusion of Ideas". The diffusion of ideas has become a central research theme in political science, sociology, law, history, and economics. In this context, the Kolleg-Forschergruppe focuses on the theoretical and methodological challenges of identifying scope conditions for and interaction effects between the various causal mechanisms by which ideas are spread across time and space. We concentrate on the European Union (EU) as an almost ideal laboratory for investigating processes and outcomes of diffusion. First, European integration itself can be described as an effort to promote the diffusion of ideas across Europe and beyond. Second, European societies and polities emulate each other through mimetic processes. Third, Europe and the EU also serve as active promoters of diffusion processes toward the outside world. Last not least, European integration is embedded in and responds to larger global diffusion processes. The Kolleg-Forschergruppe will explore the diffusion of ideas in three thematic areas: "identity and the public sphere," "compliance, conditionality, and beyond," and "comparative regionalism and Europe's external relations".

"The European Union (EU) perceives itself as a model for regional integration, which it seeks to diffuse by actively promoting the development of genuine (intra-) regional economic and political cooperation, the building of issue-related regimes, and the creation of joint institutions for consultation and decision-making in its neighbourhood and beyond as well as between the world regions and the EU. In this paper, we explore the extent to which EU has sought to promote regional integration beyond its borders. More specifically, we analyze what exactly the EU seeks to export and how it has used its external relations and foreign policy to foster the cooperation between regions (inter-regionalism), on the one hand, and regional cooperation among third countries, on the other. We proceed in three steps. The first part of the paper outlines the mechanisms and instruments through which the EU diffuses the idea of regional integration to other regions and fosters regional integration among third countries. In the second part, we take stock of the EU's attempts to export regional integration focusing on the mechanisms it has drawn upon. We conclude with some considerations to what extent the promotion of regional integration constitutes a genuine EU agenda for global governance." (author's abstract)

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A European public sphere emerges out of Europeanized national public spheres if the following two phenomena are verified. First, if and when the same (European) themes are discussed at the same time with similar frames of reference, meaning structures, and patterns of interpretation across the various media sources. Second, if and when a transnational community of communication emerges in which speakers and listeners recognize each other as legitimate participants in a discourse that frames the issues at stake as common European problems. We present empirical evidence from other scholars and two case studies of our own, namely Eastern enlargement and the sanctions against the Austrian ÖVP/FPÖ-government. The main finding is that at least when European issues are discussed, that a European public sphere is constituted and re-constituted through the discursive connections and debates across borders.

HauptbeschreibungZur Lösung globaler Probleme wird die Dritte Welt immer wichtiger. Doch über die Staaten der Nicht- OECD liegt nur begrenztes Wissen vor. Für den Westen gültige Erfahrungen sind dort nur teilweise wirksam. Statt die Welt neu zu erklären, muss sie erst neu verstanden werden. Aus unterschiedlicher Perspektive werden deshalb wichtige Facetten der Länder des Südens analysiert und für neue theoretische Zugänge zum Verstehen der Nord-Süd- Beziehungen geworben.€Biographische InformationenHans-Jürgen Burchardt ist Professor für Internationale und Intergesellschaftliche Beziehunge.

Die neue Politikgeschichte hat die enge Definition von "Politik" hinter sich gelassen. Die Autorinnen und Autoren des Bandes verstehen das Politische als einen dynamischen Kommunikationsraum, dessen Grenzen und Inhalte beständig ausgehandelt werden - durchverbale, symbolische und teils auch gewalthafte Kommunikation. Diese Grenzziehungen und Kommunikationsformen werden an ausgewählten Beispielen dargestellt, um schließlich die Frage zu beantworten, was auf der Agenda einer künftigen historischenPolitikforschung stehen sollte. Biographische InformationenWillibald Steinmetz ist Professor für mod.