*** RICCARDO PETRELLA: Au nom de l'humanité. L'audace mondiale. Editions Couleur livres (4 rue Masquelier, B-7000 Mons. Tel: (32-65) 823944 - Email: commandes@couleurlivres.be - Internet: http://www.couleurlivres.be ). 2015, 245 pp. €18. ISBN 978-2-87003-678-5.
Humanity is the subject of this book and it has always had its prophets. This has usually tended to be men because women have definitely been a tiny minority in this "profession" and these prophets have always been there to admonish their fellow human beings and point out to them their duty to God or their respective society. In his own individual way, Riccardo Petrella is one of these prophets at the beginning of this millennium. His singularity can be located in the way he seeks to focus his talent and energy, not on the divine, but on… humanity itself. It is ultimately humanity that the author claims is responsible for the apocalyptic debris of our world, which has been abandoned to the autistic servants of the current cult of Mammon, embodied in the deadly trinity of insatiable greed, endless growth and the insanely un-bridled power of finance.
For 15 years, Riccardo Petrella headed the Commission's scientific programme, Fast. He previously headed the European Research and Coordination Centre for Social Science (UNESCO) in Vienna. He is, therefore, dilettante or smooth talker and has effectively received honorary doctorates from eight universities after having been a professor at the University of Leuven. It is, however, the battles he has waged as an intellectual sniper that he has gained a reputation throughout the whole world and is recognised and warmly acknowledged by many, whilst being snubbed for being an uncontrollable force by others. In his most recent book he provides a number of excellent reasons why his ideas are worthy of support.
Prophets are often seen as soothsayers and in this respect it is impossible to ignore this aspect when the author immediately claims that he would like to be the tributary of a "vision of the economy and world free from the dogmas of the market, capital, finance, private enterprise and technology". In this connection, the introduction that he provides to this book already resembles a cavalry charge against the highly damaging forces that have led and are maintaining, "humanity in its clutches" in a "global impasse", with, for example, these, "European Union institutions, particularly the European Commission", which is guilty of acting as nothing less than the mouthpiece of the corporatisation and privatisation of, "essential public goods and services necessary to our very lives". Europe is not the only source of all the evils in the world that he highlights and the author makes references to the militarisation and securitisation of the world with the construction of "private towns" "border length walls" and the "devastating exploitation of the planet's natural resources". Nonetheless, Europe is also cited as being responsible for some of these evils because it has not been spared by rising inequality, now the basic problem facing humanity. Therefore, has it not been in part responsible for social regression and the fact that access to rights is now conditioned by one's purchasing power? Has not its migration policy been tainted by a crass selfishness that has been discredited among significant swathes of public opinion given that, "the political leaders that defend restrictions on citizenship in the name of security and national sovereignty" have also been those who over the past few decades, "have transferred political power to the hands of the major global economic groups for whom the only thing that counts is the interests of their shareholders"? Have not these leaders of Europe and its member states not been the artisans of the, "privatisation of political power", which has replaced the democratically elected governments with a system of "governance" that bestows, "decision-making power on stakeholders and removes it from the elected representatives of the people"? Is it not down to them that we have lost the notions of the general interest and public goods and services? Has not the Commission revealed itself as the spearhead for this development by allowing things such as the "privatisation of water" where those promoting private interests have effectively become the real masters of this policy?
In this perspective, it is easy to understand that Riccardo Petrella does not want a world where the economic leaders impose their views on the political "leaders" and allow the weakest, most unskilled or least competitive to be sacrificed in this quest. What he wants is illustrated in this book and seeks to make a stand to humanity becoming ever more subjugated by the producers whose values are promoted and which lead to a, "degradation in the sense of life and the human community", whether these express themselves "in the name of God… Or the name of the people or nation" (when in fact they are increasingly the source of mystification, imposture and blockage or "in the name of money" where the latter now have the whip hand and have even succeeded in capturing "all forms of life" and debasing notions of progress and science etc. These are some of the areas of impasse he reveals and explains with passion in the four chapters of his book. His goal is, above all, to outline the ways in which women and men can free themselves from these deadly impasses. In exchange, he explains that a certain audaciousness is required and that this will mainly be found in the forces of those deemed most weak, excluded and disadvantaged. What does he propose they do in practice? In effect, he calls for them to work on any level they can, no matter how modest, to ensure that humanity can ultimately provide itself with the means of one day becoming a "human community" and one that is recognised as a "legal and political subject" in its own right with its own interests that go beyond those put forward by the different states and, particularly, the transnational economic conglomerates. He calls on all men and women of good will to raised the flag of peaceful revolt to ensure that the world of tomorrow makes poverty illegal and that war is disarmed and at the world of finance is put in check. In practice, he calls for a "pact for humanity" to be drafted. Is this utopian? Undeniably, but does not courage also mean opening one's eyes and recognising that there is still time to change the world peacefully? This book is certainly not going to be appreciated by some quarters and we can only hope that at in this respect, Petrella is not left preaching in a desert!
Michel Theys
*** ANASTASIA MARINOPOULOU (Editor): Cosmopolitan Modernity. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen, Switzerland. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). “New Visions of the Cosmopolitan” series, No. 4. 2015, 320 pp. €71.30. ISBN 978-3-0343-0873-1.
Is cosmopolitanism the way forward for the European Union or indeed the future of the entire human race? In this publication a number of specialists, the majority of them being sociologists, appear to be rather convinced that it is indeed the way forward. It is also quite apparent that the argument they develop is also full of conviction, or at least, so it would appear to Europeans for whom the current impasse in democracy and politics could lead them to feeling rather desperate. One of the first major qualities of this book is to clearly explain what cosmopolitanism currently represents in this era of new modernity, with the previous one going back to the… Stoics of ancient Greece. In her introduction, Anastasia Marinopoulou, therefore explains, "the threefold intention to fight against: a. the disruption of universal peace; b. the sense of citizens that they are weak and voiceless within civil society; c. the state of political inferiority experienced by an extensive number of people without social and political rights within modern societies". These symptoms can be seen everywhere in Europe and it would therefore be foolish to ignore the way in which cosmopolitanism could prove to be a precious antidote the current decline we are witnessing. Each of the different writers contributing to this publication illustrates one or other of the different dimensions of the potential contained within cosmopolitanism to revitalise. Bibliothèque européenne is perhaps not the most appropriate arena to develop all these arguments in full but we are able to focus on two of the main structuring ideas of this book. First of all, it should be pointed out that cosmopolitanism should not be confused with federalism, which does not aim to abolish the state but rather, as explained by the book's editor, seeks to provide, "the binding force among states under a transnational political sphere without federalist concerns". This in itself would, we assume, prove acceptable on both sides of the English Channel… Nonetheless, this could prove to be a foolish assumption because the tenants of this school of thought also believe that cosmopolitanism is undoubtedly the ideal way of democratically domesticating the economic interests that on their own, the exclusive masters of globalisation and, subsequently, of the European Union, which appears to have lost its incontestable cosmopolitan routes and make do with, as explained by the political scientist, Anastasia Marinopoulou (University of Athens), a "political status quo" based on, " the colonization of democracy by the market, irritable European civil society, and the regression of politics into the re-prioritization of the national state".
It is difficult to deny, at least on the basis of this observation, and the authors contributing to this book correctly identify the problem but are the solutions they proposed viable in the future? All of them are effectively based on the conviction that the European Union is more than ever the best placed political entity to work towards cosmopolitanism, as long as this can be reconciled with democracy.
(MT)
*** L'Europe en formation. Revue d'études sur la construction européenne et le fédéralisme - Journal of Studies on European Integration and Federalism. Centre international de formation européenne (« L'Adriatic », 81 rue de France, F-06000 Nice. Tel: (33-4) 93979397 - fax: 93979398 - Email: europe.formation@cife.eu - Internet: http://www.cife.eu ). 2015, No. 376, 191 pp. €20. Subscription €50.
This edition of the journal founded by Alexandre Marc, the herald of fully federal system, contains a substantial feature article on a theme that is becoming increasingly important every day, namely, the future of our common European good. This is an extension of a scientific symposium held by the International European Training Centre, which brought together philosophers, economists, political scientists and historians and which sought to clarify the concepts of common and public goods. In his introduction, Hartmut Marhold seeks to get to the different roots of this concept and looks at those developed by Aristotle and St Thomas Aquinas. The former claims that political legitimacy does not naturally flow from the democratic system and the latter was in fact an early advocate of multilevel government. Both themes are currently on the agenda of the European Union. Moreover, their visions of the common good have been somewhat undermined by the advocates and theoreticians of neoliberalism who have had the upper hand in the politico-media arena over the past three decades and who have subsequently led the world to the impasses that developed from the 2008 crisis breaking out. According to the former director of the International European Training Centre between 2002-13, the German "liberal order", adepts of the social market economy, resisted the call to adopt the march advocated by Milton Friedman but he also reveals that this German recipe could possibly be counter-productive when it is simply imposed mechanically by Berlin on all the different members of the Eurozone. The different contributions to this dossier include the insight provided by the economist, Jacques Le Cacheux (Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour), which focuses on the European common good and which has been somewhat undermined by the lack of resources at both institutional and budgetary levels, characteristic of the Union and even more of the euro zone of late. It should also be pointed out that in addition to the customary account provided by Jean-Pierre Gouzy, there are also two other "columns" on the "illusions and realities" of the European defence identity and another on the potential benefits of European citizenship if appropriately and effectively exercised.
(MT)
*** EVREN SOMER: Direct Democracy in the Baltic States. Institutions, Procedures and Practice in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, P. O. Box 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen, Switzerland. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 / fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2015, 192 p., €44.95. ISBN 978-3-631-65298-5.
Over the past few decades, different countries in the world, including the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), have introduced provisions into their respective constitutions that seek to promote different forms of direct democracy. On the basis of a comparative legal approach, this book identifies the whole raft of instruments promoting direct democracy, which have been implemented in the Baltic countries since the end of the commonest error, in 1991. These instruments played a decisive role in the success of a peaceful transition process to democracy. Evren Somer explains, however, that despite these initial hopes, these systems of direct democracy generally proved ineffective between the 1991 and 2014 periods and have not enabled citizens and the Baltic countries to share state power with their representatives or directly take politically important decisions and have, ultimately, been both limited and fragmented in their overall effect. As the author explains, there are still many obstacles in each of these countries relating to the procedure that restrains not just the efficient use of the tools analysed but also the probability that they are able to reach the required quorum so that they can be used.
(JBe)
*** ANNE-SYLVIE PIGEONNIER: Européanisation et démocratisation des États baltes dans la période de préadhésion à l'UE. Le rôle de la conditionnalité politique des organisations européennes. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Euroclio" series, No. 89. 2015, 263 pp. €44.90. ISBN 978-2-87574-269-8
During the second half of 2013, Lithuania was the first of the three Baltic countries that joined the European Union on 1 May 2004, to have exercised the Presidency of the Council. This was well deserved, although we are also interested in the way that these three countries returned to democracy and Europe, particularly in the context of the Ukrainian crisis and Russia's current position, which has led to these countries' geopolitical environment becoming more uncertain. Anne-Sylvie Pigeonnier is both a political scientist and historian and in this study she returns to the journey made by the three Baltic countries since the collapse of the Soviet Union and in light of the influence of the political conditions set out by the Union in this area. First of all, the author provides a legal definition of this concept and explains what instruments she will use in this task, whilst providing a case study of the fight against corruption in these three countries. The three chapters that follow also contain case studies and focus on the adaptation of the government and the public authorities in the Baltic states towards the governance exercised by the Union. She then looks at the way in which democratic multilevel governance has been introduced in Lithuania and Latvia, which is then followed by an examination of the way in which national minority rights have been promoted by the EU in these two countries. In her conclusion, Anne-Sylvie Pigeonnier demonstrates that the Europeanisation and democratisation of the Baltic states remains a work in progress and that democratic conditions are something that need to be renewed at a political level or even require "reinvention" if the Union is to remain the guarantor of good democratic governance and its member states and associated candidate countries.
(PBo)