Suchergebnisse

In this paper, I will first present some elements of an aesthetic theory of the sublime. I will then, using the case of the fall of the Soviet Union as an example, develop some ideas for an alternative, constructivist theory of the political sublime that will emphasize the relatively stable symbolic aspects of politics. No matter how dramatic an incident, it needs to be analyzed in dialectical interaction with the symbolic structures of world/local politics. It is in the relatively stable symbolic structures of normal political life that the key to an understanding of the political sublime can be found.

This article examines one aspect of the relationship between European Union institutions and the French political field: politicians' careers. What is the value of positions in the Commission and the European Parliament for French politicians in terms of career mobility? This study shows that the value of the Commission as a source of domestic political capital has risen since the 1950s, whereas the value of the European Parliament has remained relatively low. The position of Commissioner is now comparable to a ministerial‐level position. Membership in the European Parliament has remained secondary to a national political career. Yet, as a result of the European Parliament's peripheral position in the French political field, new social groups, linking the regions to the European institutions or forming cross‐partisan interest groups, have been created. Evidence shows that if the European Union institutions present an alternative type of political capital to national political capital, political careers and ambitions are still formed in national terms. National mechanisms for the formation of groups having a vested interest in the relative autonomy of supranational political institutions have not developed sufficiently. This inadequacy might be the single most important reason for the democratic deficit in the European Union.We are not in business at all; we are in politics. (Former President of the EC Commission Walter Hallstein, quoted in Swann 1990, vii)

This book seeks to develop Rhetoric as a field of knowledge in an important new direction, European Union politics. The authors analyse what could be called a "European style of politics" textual strategies and rhetorical styles evolving within and around the EUs supranational and national institutions. By fusing rhetorical and sociological approaches, political thought and culture, the book contributes to the analysis of the political as a way of thinking and judging the political aspect of any phenomena. Niilo Kauppi is Research Professor at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Strasbourg, France. Kari Palonen is Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland.