*** DANIEL GAXIE, NICOLAS HUBE, MARINE DE LASSALLE, JAY ROWELL (Directors): L'Europe des Européens. Enquête comparative sur les perceptions de l'Europe. Economica (49 rue Héricart, F-75015 Paris. Tel: (33-3) 21795675 - Email: sav@commande.eyrolles.com - Internet: http://www.eyrolles.com ). "Etudes politiques" series. 2011, 295 p. €37. ISBN 978-2-7178-5963-8.
What do European citizens really think about European construction? This question has always been boring at the backs of policymakers' minds. Now that the crisis is taking a grip and hitting the daily lives of European citizens with its full force, there has been a significant rise in populist and nationalist responses. This issue has become crucial with regard to the continuing European adventure… with its 27 members at the very least. This book comes at a very appropriate moment and provides the results from a research programme on “common conceptions of Europe”. The programme was carried out between January 2006 and June 2009. This “Concorde” programme initially brought French sociologists and political scientists together from Paris I, Strasbourg and Picardy universities, together with their German counterparts at the Marc Bloch Centre, in an effort to compare the attitudes of German and French citizens. Over time, this project opened up to teams from the University of Turin and Centre for French Civilisation and the French Language in Warsaw, which helped expand the field of research to Italian and Polish citizens.
The book is divided into four parts. The first part presents the approach adopted by the survey. Daniel Gaxie, the Professor in political science at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, demonstrates that commonly held attitudes of citizens with regard to Europe have been the source of a large number of statistical results, which have created a number of methodological problems and contained a number of “blind spots”. The Eurobarometer surveys therefore find themselves in the firing line. Philippe Aldrin, professor of political science at the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, explains that their status as a scientific and political instrument, as well as their methodology based on close questions, needs to be discussed. A third chapter focuses on the techniques of alternative surveys, which are more far reaching and advocated by the writers of this book because they are more effective at locating the, “complexity and adversity of perceptions and reactions from ordinary citizens”. The second part of the book explores the analysis of attitudes about Europe. A comprehensive number of ideals characterising the different categories of public opinion is initially presented, highlighting France. German, Italian and Polish specificities are then underlined, with the chapter focusing on the diversity of principles that structure the purported attitudes of ordinary citizens. The composite character and ambivalence of these attitudes are then analysed and the third chapter examines the contents and scope of collective national experiences of European integration.
In the third part of the book, the authors analyse the resources and instruments that different citizens employed to express their point of view about Europe. In this connection, resources for putting forward ideas and the different kinds of public discourse are very precisely identified. The question of whether and to what degree the possibility of expressing these opinions about Europe depend on technical know-how, is then explored. Giuliano Bobba (University of Turin), Katarzyna Jaszczyk (University of Warsaw) and Muriel Rambour examine information resources and levels among the different categories of the public. They take into account their opinions about information and non-information… in an effort to explain what appears obscure and uncertain to them, as well as more familiar elements on which they elaborate their different points of view. Finally, in the last part of the book, the authors compare and contrast the different attitudes towards Europe among different segments of the public. Marine de Lassalle (University of Strasbourg) subsequently demonstrates that European citizens' knowledge and perceptions also depend on the way in which the European Union organises itself and attempts to be perceived by the outside world. Christèle Marchand (University of Avignon) and Pierre Edouard Weill (University of Strasbourg) develop their analyses of more working class stratas in society and whose reactions towards Europe constitute one of the most pronounced shortcomings in specialist literature on the subject. The authors' objective in this connection was to reveal the perceptions and ideas of these categories of people as much as possible, those who are usually far removed from questions relating to the European Union. The last chapter focuses on sections of the public who are affected by European issues to the extent that they express themselves outside survey mechanisms on European issues, namely citizens who have genuinely mobilised with regard to key European questions. The book consists of an edifying and realistic analysis of how Europe is perceived by its citizens.
Michel Theys
*** REINHARD HILDEBRANDT: Staat und Zivilgesellschaft. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - e-mail: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2011, 299 pp, €37.20. ISBN 978-3-631-61973-5.
This book is a mainly theoretical contribution to the debate on the relationship between state and civil society. The author explores this question by providing an insight into the most recent political and theoretical developments in this field. The European Union is focused upon in this book and whose structure has indeed changed the relationship between citizens and the state. Reinhard Hildebrandt therefore takes us back to the very first theoreticians of political philosophy in an effort to explain how the different changes have been experienced by European societies and in their relationships with the state power. Democracy, in all its different forms, is a subject that is particularly analysed and developed by the author of this book.
Firstly, Hildebrandt obviously looks at what the different authors have contributed to providing any significant contribution to understanding the current system. These therefore include Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant, whose ideas are discussed, explained and used for reference. The different forms of civil society illustrated by these authors are also presented and the different methods underpinning relations between civil societies and the state are also explored. In this part of the book, the individual is placed at the centre of the study and in this connection the author provides an illustration of the theories of Jürgen Habermas on civil society's direct participation in the political life of a state. His theory on the public sphere is also analysed at great length. Drawing on the ideas of Foucault, for example, the different forms of power and specificities with regard to the state, are at the core of this chapter, together with the theme of hegemony. The individual assumes an even more important place in the following pages, with the author analysing the freedoms and specificities bequeathed to the individual in the different models discussed earlier in the book. Liberal theories of the conception of the state permeate this chapter.
Following on from the other studies, the author also attempts to provide a more precise definition of the concept of “civil society”. He tackles this fundamental question at two different levels: firstly, by providing a generic definition and secondly, by explaining this concept and its scope within an international context. This study also provides an insight from a different angle in its adoption of a more pragmatic approach than the theories at the beginning of the book. The issue is also looked at from a legal perspective and the author subsequently explores the terms of state and people in the German constitution. He also analyses the different existing forms of civil participation in contemporary societies. Several different models of democracy are illustrated, as well as the constraints and opportunities created by the model of the market economy. The individual, his role, his rights and responsibilities are also subjects that are discussed at great length in the final part of the book. Comprehensive annexes account for a third of the book and also look at certain ideas such as the new social market and the challenges created by globalisation.
(JD)
*** The Federalist Debate. Papers on Federalism in Europe and the World. Einstein Center for International Studies (26 via Schina, I-10144 Torino. Tel./fax: (+39-011) 4732843 - Email: federalist.debate@libero.it - Internet: http://www.federalist.debate.org ). 2011, No. 2, 64 pp. Annual subscription: €15
This edition of the federalist publication edited by Lucio Levi, includes an article by Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann on the European Citizens' Initiative, which enters into force on 1 April next. As the writer of this article explains, this will mean, “that direct trans-national democracy will become a reality for the first time in history”. The former vice president of the European Parliament and European Convention starts off by discussing the initial and controversial origins of this initiative within the European Convention and on its margins at the beginning of the new century. A majority of member states were initially opposed to it because their political cultures did not understand it, similarly to the way in which they opposed the idea of organising a pan-European referendum, as advocated by Alain Lamassoure. Finally, a proposal developed by Professor Jürgen Meyer ultimately enabled those behind the European initiative to obtain a break-through at the Convention Presidium. Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann subsequently explained that it will be up to the federalists to use the European Citizens' Initiative appropriately next year, so that citizens regain their motivation and go to the ballot box in the European elections of 2014.
(MT)
*** The European Union after the Treaty of Lisbon / L'Union Européenne après le Traité de Lisbonne. Visions of leading policy-makers, academics and journalists / Visions de décideurs politiques, d'académiques et de journalistes. European Commission (DG Education and culture, B-1049 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2991111 - fax: 2955719 - Email: eac-info@ec.europpa.eu / Official l Publications Office, Luxembourg. Internet: http://bookshop.europa.eu ). 2011, 319 pp. ISBN 978-92-79-17613-5.
This publication provides an account of the ideas and suggestions put forward at the most recent Jean Monnet International Conference, held last spring. It begins with the speeches made by president Barroso and Doris Pack, president of the European Parliament's culture and education committee. The conference also focus on the following themes: Institutional balance and inter-institutional cooperation; Fundamental Rights and European Union Citizenship; the new framework for confronting global economic challenges and the European Union as an international political and security actor. Commissioners, MEPs and eminent scientists tackle all the different points in this publication, as well as a number of journalists, including Ferdinando Riccardi.
(MT)
*** MARION GAILLARD: France-Europe. Politique européenne de la France de 1950 à nos jours. De Boeck (39 rue des Minimes, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5480713 - fax: 5480714 - Email: commande@deboeckservices.com - Internet: http://www.deboeck.be ). « Le point sur collection… Politique ». 2010, 185 pp, €12. ISBN 978-2-8041-6016-6.
Marion Gaillard is a political scientist and historian who paints both a concise, clear and accurate picture of France's European policy since the beginnings of the European project. After briefly underlining the, “premise of the European idea” during the centuries and throughout the slaughter of the last century, it became clear that European countries did not have any other choice but to, “build Europe in order to survive”. She also explains how some French nationals helped scupper the European Defence Community, by following the line of the right wing parliamentarian, Adolphe Aumeran, who claimed at the French National Assembly that Germans, “have absolutely no intention of fighting for a Christian civilisation about which it is unaware, a democracy about which it complains and a Europe for which it does not have a cure and about which it will therefore only be concerned if it could become its master”. Fortunately, times have changed, even if recent tension will, in some people's view, add some credibility to the quotation above. With this in mind and with the goal of providing an objective insight, Marion Gaillard subsequently explores European action under each president of the Fifth Republic, from the questioning of the Community Method by Gaullist France during the empty chair crisis to, “the return of France in Europe” under Sarkozy, to the relative “conversion to Europe” of Pompidou by Giscard d'Estaing, to the halfway house between inter-governmentalism and federalism, through François Mitterrand who had, “ Europe as the horizon and France withdrawing from Europe” to contend with. This analysis pulls no punches and does not attempt to conceal the ambiguities and contradictions, which are still very much part of the French landscape on European issues.
(MT)
*** Revue politique et parlementaire. Société d'Edition Académique et Diplomatique (3 rue Bellini, F-92800 Puteaux. Tel: (33-9) 77768281 - fax: (33-1) 40548284 - Internet: http://www.revuepolitique.fr ). April- May- June 2011, No. 1059, 239 pp, € 24. Annual subscription: € 61 (France), €75 (abroad). ISBN 978-2-85702-179-7.
In this issue of this still very high-quality intellectual publication, a number of economic challenges and political events are analysed at European, global and, of course, at French levels. These questions involve how to reduce the public deficit in France, the possible need of developing “French taxation that is euro compatible”, the fate of the euro zone and ultimately the Union.
(MT)
*** GIULIO CIPOLLONE, GUIDO RAVASI: Giuseppe Vedovato, costruttore d'Europa. Edizioni Nagard (9 via Larga, I-20122 Milan. Tel: (39-2) 58371400 - Email: info@fondazionedragan.org). "Fondazione Europea Dragan" series, No. 36. 2011, 330 pp, €15. ISBN 978-88-96498-04-0.
This excellent publication pays a glowing homage to Professor Giuseppe Vedovato on his 99th birthday. Emeritus professor at the University of “Sapienza" in Rome, Giuseppe has taken part in all the battles of greater Europe at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, where he was the only Italian to have been responsible for the presidency during its Parliamentary Assembly. The life and career of a man is painted with the different depictions provided by a number of different people including Emilio Colombo, in light of his public ethics and cultural presence, in addition to his contribution to the history of diplomatic relations between Italy and Romania. (PBo)