In his book “The Passage to Europe: How a Continent Became a Union”, Luuk van Middelaar, a Dutch historian and political philosopher, offers an original approach to analyze the political nature of the European Union through a philosophical and historical narrative from 1950s to the present. Indeed, “the truth of politics can only be understood over time” (p. 14). Through this narrative, the author illustrates the factors that have shaped the politic nature of the European Union and offers an alternative view of the origin and the future of the EU.
Before starting the story of the passage to the Union, Van Middelaar identifies three types of discourses and three types of spheres that illustrate the diversity in understanding the nature of the EU. He explains: intergovernmentalism (Offices and States discourses), supranationalism (Offices and Citizens discourses), and constitutionalism (States and Citizens discourses). By identifying and explaining these discourses, the author shows the limits of previous studies of the EU because “each of the three discourses encourages an illusion that can blind its supporters to the historicity of politics.” (p.10). He has distanced himself from this “illusion” and has used a unique approach that considers the effect of time, which is “the link between past, present, and future” (p.11). The author then identifies three different spheres to analyze the political nature of Europe. The first sphere is the outer sphere which represents the geographical limits of Europe and the sovereignty of each state in the Union. The second sphere is the inner sphere that has started with the treaty of Paris in 1951 that established the European Coal and Steel Community and that represents the institutional and co...
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...ifferent story of the EU that has not been focused on in other books or papers. This original, unbiased approach allows the reader to put the EU in a historical perspective that also helps understanding at least the changing forces. In addition, it seems that the author wants to make the public or his audience comfortable with the idea of uncertainty that has been affecting the EU. His second part shows how the current shape was not only the result of political or economic reasons, but also a response of a changing external environment. Moreover, the idea of purgatory as well as the philosophical references and analogies gives the book an exciting, unique demission that links politics, history, and philosophy. However, it would be interesting if the author has included technical analysis and incorporated political science theories to draw policy recommendations.
There are thousands of years of history that have taken place. History is not like art(less subjective), but there is still plenty of room for speculation, criticism, and debate among historians, professors, as well as average citizens. However, not all these moments are documented, or done successfully specifically. Some of these moments end up becoming movies, books, or even historical fiction novels, but what about those fundamental moments that aren’t readily documented? In the book The Birth of Modern Politics Lynn Hudson Parsons claims that the 1828 election was momentous in the history of both political history, as well as our nation. Parsons not only discusses the behind the scenes of the first public election of 1828, but the pivotal events in Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams’ lives leading up to the election as well. Parsons succeeds in proving her thesis that the 1828 election was crucial to American politics as we know it today, as well as provoking evidence from various sources with her own logic and opinions as well.
It is approximated that the Australopithecus, a hominid, lived approximately four to one million years ago. From that point in time, the world history of humans has been an exhaustive, arduous task to document. With that in mind, world historians attempt to capture the events most important to the development of contemporary humanity. In fact, Tamim Ansary states that “World history, after all, is not a chronological list of every damn thing that ever happened; it’s a chain of only the most consequential events, selected to reveal the arc of the story-it’s the arc that counts.” Some have taken a European approach to the restrictions, but in response to such thought, Tamim Ansary’s Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes presents a sequential restating of history through an Islamic viewpoint. From the beginning of Islam with Muhammad to recent happenings, like 9/11, Ansary presents Islamic history in a larger context to commendably combine said history with world history. Furthermore, Ansary claims that Islamic history has often been seen as a side to Western history, as Western history has “prevailed and churned” Islamic history, although it has it is crucially significant in the larger context of world history. In the larger sense, Ansary proves his argument that Islamic history has developed independently and is important, but he does not project the importance of the Islamic history over European history.
Political Analysis Political analysis is the method by which the judgement upon any political event, in any part of the world, is performed. It is based on the perception of the political reality of the region or the country in question and the perception of the relationship of this political reality with international politics. In order to perceive the international situation and international politics, it is imperative to have general outlines that explain the political reality of every state and the relationships of these states with the other states of the world, especially the major powers that influence the progress of events in the world. Since the Islamic Ummah is commanded to carry the Islamic Da'wah to all people, it is therefore obligatory upon the Muslims to be in touch with the world with awareness of its conditions and perception of its problems. The Muslims must acquaint themselves with what motivates the states and the peoples and pursue the political actions that occur in the world.
1. In your opinion, which ancient political practice, protective or developmental republicanism, has had the greatest impact on our liberal democratic practice?
A Democratic Deficit in the EU The question over the legitimacy of the EU has been a nearly continuous debate and many commentators appear to agree that the EU suffers from a severe ‘democratic deficit’. There are many reasons why this perception is so widespread. As a multinational body it lacks the grounding in common history and culture upon which most individual polities can draw.
Tiilikainen, T. 2011. The empowered European Parliament: Accommodation to the new functions provided by the Lisbon Treaty. The Finnish Institute of International Affairs.
The European Union (EU), since the initial foundation in 1952 as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and throughout periods of development, has been considered one of the most advanced forms of regional integration. It, based on numerous treaties and resolutions, has strived to promote values such as peace, cooperation or democracy, and in 2012 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for having “contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe” (Nobel Media AB, 2012). Despite its struggle for promoting democracy, the EU itself has long experienced scholarly criticisms that it suffers the democratic deficit, from which its democratic legitimacy is undermined by observable problems in political accountability and participation. As the importance of legitimacy in a democratically representative institution is hardly debatable, the criticism of whether and why the EU lacks democracy has been given a considerable gravity in academia.
Nationalism is the idea that a people who have much in common, such as language, culture and geographic proximity ought to organize in such a way that it creates a stable and enduring state. Nationalism is tied to patriotism, and it is the driving force behind the identity of a culture. Nationalism had many effects in Europe from 1815, The Congress of Vienna and beyond. In the following essay I will describe many of the consequences of nationalism on European identity, as well as some of the conflicts that it created.
Cerutti, F and Lucarelli, S: The Search for a European Identity: Values, Policies and Legitmacy of the European Union, (2008) Routledge
Eurozone crisis can be seen as the most important economic problem of the European Union in the history. Because of that crisis the currency union have faced the possibility of separation which is an extremely critical issue not only economically but also politically. Until the subprime crisis which became prominent by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008, the economic level of the EU members were similar. When the bankruptcy occurred those countries started to differentiate in a very significant way. Total government debt and also problems of banking sector lead many countries to negative GDP growth, high unemployment rates and more importantly social unrest.
Senior, Nello Susan. "Chapters:4,15." The European Union: Economics, Policies and History. London: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.
In his book After Victory, John Ikenberry examines what states do with the power that comes after winning major wars. He believes the desire to maintain power encourages the states to seek ways to limit their own power to keep other states happy. Increasingly these limits are found in international institutions used to create ¡°strategic restraint¡± on power. Ikenberry believes increasing reliance upon institutions causes the postwar order to increasingly take on constitutional characteristics. In this paper I am primarily interested in the institutions of the European Union. More specifically I would like to examine the European Union¡¯s struggle to develop its own institutions for maintaining international order. These are collectively known as its Common Foreign and Security Policy.
The enlargement of the European Union (EU) in 2004 and 2007 has been termed as the largest single expansion of the EU with a total of 12 new member states – bringing the number of members to 27 – and more than 77 million citizens joining the Commission (Murphy 2006, Neueder 2003, Ross 2011). A majority of the new member states in this enlargement are from the eastern part of the continent and were countries that had just emerged from communist economies (EC 2009, Ross 2011), although overall, the enlargement also saw new member states from very different economic, social and political compared to that of the old member states (EC 2009, Ross 2011). This enlargement was also a historical significance in European history, for it saw the reunification of Europe since the Cold War in a world of increasing globalization (EC 2009, Mulle et al. 2013, Ross 2011). For that, overall, this enlargement is considered by many to have been a great success for the EU and its citizens but it is not without its problems and challenges (EC 2009, Mulle et al. 2013, Ross 2011). This essay will thus examine the impact of the 2004/2007 enlargements from two perspectives: firstly, the impact of the enlargements on the EU as a whole, and thereafter, how the enlargements have affected the new member states that were acceded during the 2004/2007 periods. Included in the essay will be the extent of their integration into the EU and how being a part of the Commission has contributed to their development as nation states. Following that, this essay will then evaluate the overall success of the enlargement process and whether the EU or the new member states have both benefited from the accessions or whether the enlargement has only proven advantageous to one th...
For nearly sixty years, a seemingly irreversible momentum towards integration within the framework of the European Union has, for many, defined the future of the continent. On 23 June 2016, the electorate of the United Kingdom made a sovereign choice to leave the EU. After the British decision to leave, Europe’s trajectory, even its destiny, has again become a matter of choice. Brexit marks both a major constitutional change for the UK and a significant rupture for the EU. If only for this reason, the negotiation of the terms of Brexit must take a long-term view, beyond the possibly drawn-out negotiations that will begin in the coming months.
The European parliament (also referred as Europarl or the EP) is directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU) . It’s responsible for making legislative actions across the entire EU and it’s described as the most powerful legislatives in the world .