Overview

What is it that unites the European Union as a polity? Why is it necessary to democratise the EU? Can EU politicisation help democratising the EU? Why do EU citizens in referenda seemingly vote against the EU? And how can a European identity develop? To tackle these questions, this book makes a theoretical, conceptual and empirical contribution to the study of EU politicisation, democratisation, identity formation, and the ways these three are related to one another. The results of a thorough comparative analysis of two prototypical cases, namely French and German national EU discourses and in particular the discourses on the Treaty on a Constitution for Europe (TCE) in 2005, are discussed in relation to more current events such as Brexit and the French elections of 2022. The book thus develops key concepts and theoretical models and delivers profound findings on EU democratisation, identity, politicisation and contestation and their interrelations. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Union studies/politics, democratic theory, discourse analysis and more broadly to comparative politics. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

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9781032528465

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Reviews

The volume develops a sophisticated analysis of the partly contradictory processes of politicisation, democratisation and identity formation in the EU. It provides a new research perspective to the discourses related to the ratification of the EU Consitutitonal Treaty in 2005, showing how national discourses shape European identity. It is a must read to anyone interested in EU politics and the democratisation of the EU. - Niilo Kauppi, University of Helsinki and CNRS Wiesner’s historically informed and theoretically stimulating account of European identity construction has a good potential to advance to a new master framework for the study of European integration and its intrinsic relationship to state and democracy transformation in Europe and beyond. Drawing principally on case studies from France and Germany, the book argues for a multi-level analysis of European identity formation that unites studies on political mobilisation and politicisation of the EU in the member states with studies of democratisation and constitutionaliastion of EU institutions and decision-making. Despite recent backsliding such as the case of Brexit or the salience of Euroscepticism, such a longitudinal analysis is helpful to outline the contours of a new type of political entity, where micro dynamics of bottom-up mobilisation in support and opposition of European integration meet with macro-dynamics of democratic identity formation. - Hans-Jörg Trenz, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa

Author Information

Claudia Wiesner is Jean Monnet Chair and Professor of Political Science at Fulda University of Applied Sciences, as well as adjunct Professor in Political Science at Jyväskylä University (Finland).

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