Suchergebnisse

Croatia's EU accession has been covered in Croatian dailies as one of the pivotal foreign-policy events of the past several years judging by the number of the pertinent texts in the periods covered by this analysis (the positive avis & the postponement of the negotiations): in the four studied months in 2004 & 2005, a total of 1,523 texts in the three analyzed dailies ( Vecernji list, Jutarnji list, Vjesnik) were identified. Regardless of the differences in the profile of these dailies, there are no significant differences in reporting, which shows that the process of Croatia's EU accession is not only a popular topic but also utilized by the media & politics. The content analysis of the three Croatian dailies confirms that the European Union is presented within a political framework, while a whole array of other related topics has been neglected in the coverage. References. Adapted from the source document.

The author criticizes those Euro-sceptics who still treat the European Union as an open project that requires major decisions on the road to its fruition, as if the Union had not relinquished the model of the classical nation-state a long time ago. The author also promotes a reinterpretation of those aspects of European history that have given rise or might give rise to anti-European sentiments. Adapted from the source document.

Although the European Union is not a representative democracy, at least in some elements its political system is increasingly imitating the national liberal model of governance. So far, in the development of the European political system & in the draft EU Constitution the dual nature of the ED (federal & intergovernmental) seems to have remained in place. This is also shown in the persisting national elements in party-related institutions & processes within the EU political system that puts "its" liberal democratic characteristics in question. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

Whilst completing the largest enlargement round in its history, European Union faced the need to define both its identity & nature & limits of its future borders. In the aftermath of the failed constitutional referenda & suspension of the ratification process, the pace of future enlargement will inevitably slow down. This has already been the case with the East European countries during the 1990s, whose membership perspective was overclouded by Union's internal issues. Expansion of the EU will undoubtedly continue, but its present absorption capacity has reached endpoint. The chance for the institutional reform, through which future enlargement would keep momentum, has been discarded together with the rejection of Constitutional Treaty. The main issue of todays EU's relations with immediate neighbourhood is the way to ensure democratic consolidation & Europeanisation of these states in absence of the full membership perspective. Upon that European Neighbourhood Policy was envisaged, through which EU offers "everything, but institutions.". References. Adapted from the source document.

The author claims there are various types of tolerance. He defines tolerance as a dispositional feature of human beings vs other human beings. The basic formula of democratic tolerance runs as follows: mutual tolerance is better than both the risks of tyranny due to intolerance & the risks of a civil war. It disguises the latent aggressiveness underlying our democratic societies. Dangerous developments have been detected for the future of the European Union. It is faced with a choice: Is it going to develop according in the direction of national states or the Europeanization of national states? The first leads into an increasing intolerance. The solution lies in tolerance, which can be preserved by the Europeanization of democracy. Adapted from the source document.

The article discusses interstate relationships within the European Union & their impact on European Foreign Policy. The author suggests that EU member states, in making a choice between individual or collective action, behave as rational benefit maximizers -- in a way analogous to that described by J. M. Buchanan & G. Tullock. The author also discusses the issue of externalization as described by Schmitter, Haas, & Rowe & its role in the process of the widening of the EU. Consequences of those processes for the Republic of Croatia are also discussed. Adapted from the source document.

In defining the main preconditions for successful coexistence in the emerging & constantly changing supranational European Union, the common fundamental values shared by the European population constitute one of the main factors of this integration. The present article strives to assess whether a consensus exists in the European Union with regard to the substance of these values & to examine whether these values are implemented also in the decisions taken every day at EU level. The author attempts to determine the causes of the assumed disparity between the political ideals proclaiming the desired social order & the European reality, & to envisage the consequences to which this situation may lead. The suggested conclusion is that the proclaimed fundamental values of the Union (still) do not find expression in the European reality & that they are (as yet) substituted by other, primarily economic, interests. References. Adapted from the source document.

The article takes a comparative perspective to review the background to campaign for & result of the Slovenian ED-accession referendum. The authors describe the ED's accession referendum campaign in Slovenia as a 'cat-&-mouse game' since the 'yes' campaign was outstandingly well organized & synchronized in stark contrast to the 'no' campaign which was poorly organized & came across as the representative of a narrow set of interests. Irrespective of this, the large victory (almost 90 percent) of the 'yes' camp was unexpected as was the relatively low turnout (60,4 percent). Two of the most important reasons for this high support shown at the ED accession referendum can be traced to a broad consensus among political, social & economic elites & the reorientation of the most exposed & well-known anti-ED actors towards the NATO accession referendum that was held simultaneously. Thereby, the article also partially examines the Slovenian NATO-accession referendum but only to the extent that it influenced the campaign & result of the ED referendum. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.

The paper looks into the effectiveness of the application of preferential quotas for electoral posts & compares the different quota systems in the EU countries. Starting from the assumption that political parties in contemporary democracies are major actors in the representation of women in national parliaments, the author analyses the (un)favourable conditions for women in candidacy procedures & some examples of (un)successful quota implementations. The conclusion is that a successful application of the quotas for women depends on a set of additional variables such as the quota application in proportional electoral systems, the entrenchment of the quotas in women's movements & their consistent & long-term implementation. Tables, Graphs, References. Adapted from the source document.

Looking at the European Constitution & the legal attainments of the European Union from the perspective of the modern nation-state leads to aporia & Euroskepticism since the European Union has never been, nor will it ever be, a political community modelled after the nation-state. The nation-state as a constitutional institution is not tantamount to political processes; it is one of the historical options of the political. The state & politics cannot be equated: the nation-state is a political institution while politics is a process with various alternatives of institutionalization. These two sides, the constitutional state & the political processes, are in the relationship of soft incommensurability & it is not quite possible to equate them in some higher association. Equating the constitutional state & the political activity in present-day debates on the European Constitution results in Euroskepticism. Conservative theoreticians of the state & politics cannot study the constitutional state separately from political processes. For them Europe is possible solely as a constitutional state with democratic legitimation; otherwise it will never come into being. These theoreticians view the relationship between the constitution & politics as the means-ends or cause-effect category, & not as an open-ended process between two one unequatable media that are semantically mutually irritating. The goal of the European politics is not a European state, nor is the goal of the European constitution to curb the spontaneity of European political processes. The European Union is an open-ended semantic relationship between its legal attainments & its political processes. Consequently, the concept of democracy as a political form will have to be redefined. The European Union as a political community sui generis should be explained from the perspective of contemporary theories evolved along the lines of the linguistic & deconstructivist reversal of the modern substantionalist rationalism, universalism & cosmopolitism. The major contribution of these post-modern theories is that they do not consider political reality as an objective given, but as a construct for which we know how it was produced so that we can change it. This means that the object of study is not the constitutional-legal reality but the knowledge of the constitutional-legal reality that is continuously expanded by means of the new designations of the semantically nonexistent political environment. The European Constitution & the European politics are in the relationship of mutual semantic irritation, but are not identical & will never become identical. References. Adapted from the source document.

The texts focuses on constitutionalisation of democracy in the European Union and the phenomenon of democratic deficit through the failed Constitution for Europe and, thereafter, the Lisbon Treaty, which takes over the definition of democracy as the foundation of the European Union. In this context, the author also looks into the contribution of political scientist Zvonko Posavec, who was one of the first in Croatia to advocate the need for constitutionalisation of the European Union as a project of finalising the process of European integration. While writing about the need for constitutional foundation of the European Union, Posavec simultaneously reflects on representative democracy as the form of democracy on which the European Union is predominantly founded. Beside a valorisation of Posavec's works on democracy in the European Union, this paper deals with the problem of the democratic deficit in the European Union which is manifest in the lack of democratic legitimacy of EU institutions, with the sole exception of the European Parliament. The author finds, however, that the main deficit of the European Union is not the democratic process, but political alienation. He perceives the latter as alienation of citizens from the EU as a derivative community, non-transparent and distanced from the basic interests of the citizens and the media interest in politics. Although the European Union declaratively relies on basic democratic values, in practice democracy is experienced primarily through a democratic deficit contrasted by a more obvious bureaucratic surfeit of the European political construction. The author asserts that the Lisbon Treaty was a step towards founding the EU on democratic principles inasmuch as it introduced elements of participative democracy, although it did not accept proposals for introduction of direct democracy in the EU. Finally, the author puts forward some ideas which might reduce the degree of political alienation of citizens in relation to the European Union; this requires giving greater authority to the European Parliament, abolishing the monopoly of the legislative initiative of the European Commission, incorporating the Council of the European Union into the European Parliament as the second House, i.e. the European Senate, and consequently implementing the mechanism of consulting the citizens regarding the legislative initiatives of the EU. The author concludes that the democratic deficit and political alienation cannot be overcome in the European Union without overcoming the democratic deficits and concrete forms of political alienation in the member states which the European Union consists. Adapted from the source document.

In this paper the author analyses the possibility of 'creating' a European political people and forming a European political identity and a European political community. In the first, theoretical part of the paper, the author defines two concepts of people -- demos and ethnos -- and describes problems in identity building on purely political grounds of people as demos. By examining the references on a European political people in the EU legal foundations, the author illustrates dual premises of legitimacy for the Union and the Union's identity referents which are generally of a universalist nature. In the second, empirical part of the paper, the author presents how the European identity is formed, in line with classic distinction between 'civic' and 'ethnic' identity. Since the Eurobarometer survey showed a low level of European identification of EU member states' citizens, the author presents concepts which aim to overcome the low level of European affiliation. In the final part of the paper the question which is examined is whether the existence of a European political people is necessary for the future of the European integration. To this end, the author uses various theoretical approaches to the 'creation' of a European political people: economic/market approach, communitarian/statist approach, 'constitutional patriotism' of Habermas, Weiler's 'multiple demoi' and pluralism/particularism. Adapted from the source document.