Suchergebnisse

The article evaluates the reasons behind the surge of interest in memory politics in EU countries in the last decade. The author analyses the current memory studies agenda, the mechanisms and instruments proposed for use at EU level to promote a common European identity, and the practices of representing a shared European past in public spaces that have emerged over the last few years (such as the permanent exhibition of House of European History in Brussels). The evaluation of new priorities on the memory politics agenda can help shed light on the difficulties and threats to further promote European solidarity based on a common memory, especially having in mind the drastic consequences of the 2020 pandemic crisis. One can foresee the advancement of national and regional models of memory politics to the frontline of identity politics in Europe. The research is based on the analysis of discourses reflecting the changing memory politics agenda aimed at consolidating a common European space where Russia is considered as the alien Other. Empirical data was collected by the author during her visits to European museums and memory sites representing the history and the current state of the European integration project. This was complemented by the analysis of digital library and archive resources and expert reports dedicated to memory politics and identity policies in the EU.

AbstractMigration has become a top policy priority of the European Union (EU) in the wake of the 2015 migrant crisis. Given the significant ramifications of non‐European immigration for its member states, the EU has implemented a variety of policies to minimize popular backlashes within the borders of its wealthiest member states, which are also popular final destinations for migrants. In this article, we show that the EU offers financial incentives to its migrant‐transit member countries in exchange for holding migrants traveling from the Middle East and North Africa region within their territories. We use a subnational dataset on Southern Italy to examine the effects of migrant arrivals by boat on the amount of the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund received by each autonomous region between 2006 and 2018. In addition, we provide a cross‐national analysis of EU expenditures using data on unauthorized border crossings into the EU between 2009 and 2018. We find robust empirical support for the argument that the EU channels more funds to jurisdictions located on the major migrant‐transit routes.

"In recent years the financial and economic crisis of 2008-9 has progressed into an equally important political and democratic crisis of the EU. These troubled times set the framework to re-assess a number of important questions in regard to representative democracy in the EU, such as the normative foundation of political representation, the institutional relationship between representatives and represented, the link between democracy and representation and new arenas and actors. This book examines the diverse avenues through which different sorts of actors express their voices during the Euro crisis and how their various interests are translated into the decision-making process. It offers a state-of-the-art assessment of what political representation means in this context as well as a contribution to the "representative turn" in democratic theory. The authors address three key themes:The main actors and channels of political representation in the EU. Interlocking levels of representation in the EU and the way in which national and supranational representation works. How the European institutional system represents EU citizens through law and administration. Focusing on the importance of representation in the legitimation of democracy, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of European Union politics, European studies, democratic theory, representation studies, civil society and transnational democracy"--

Starting from the basic assumption that institutionalized processes of information transfers are never entirely neutral but advantage certain types of information over others, this powerful collection presents the results of a research agenda that, through empirical investigation, systematically examines how information plays a key role in policy-making. As a very dynamic environment characterized by many different modes of information gathering and processing, the European Union forms a particularly interesting venue in which to test the 'politics of information' approach. With a mandate to go beyond the general assertion that informational asymmetry matters, the study has selected a number of pivotal EU actors and policy areas, studying them through 'information lenses'. More concretely the different contributions present a better understanding of the politics of information by examining the formal rules of information access, distribution and processing and by studying how these rules are applied in the day-to-day policy process.

The authors attempt to sort out three exogenous factors affecting the domestic societies of European Union (EU) member countries: market globalization, the European single market, and European supranational institutions. They offer a research design to separate the respective manifestations of each factor and apply it to four domestic dimensions: labor market, capital market, electoral competition, and center-local government relations. Although they find systematic evidence in the cases of the labor and capital markets supporting the widely shared claim that the EU is an agent of globalization, the results also point to the importance of the voluntarist component in the electoral and subgovernmental domains.