*** MARIO TELO: L'Etat et l'Europe. Histoire des idées politiques et des institutions européennes. Editions Labor (29 quai du Commerce, B-1000 Brussels. Internet: http: //http://www.labor.be ). "Sciences politiques" series. 2005, 248 pp, €22. ISBN 2-8040-2140-8.
The French translation of a book in Italian published by Carocci underthe title "Dallo Stato all'Europa", from the state to Europe…), this book sets the European project against the backdrop of modern political thought. President of the European Studies Institute at the 'Université libre de Bruxelles' where he holds the Jean Monnet Chair, Mario Telò provides readers with a valuable analysis to help them understand the European Union, famously described by Jacques Delors as an unidentified political object, in the history of political ideas and how the latter have crystallised out since the beginnings of the modern epoch. This broad sweep of history sheds light on changes and the vicissitudes of the European State through time, helping detect permanence in impermanence - or perhaps the reverse… - and leading to the clear conclusion that for the State of Europe, everything is always changing but nothing is ever created from scratch. Not even the European Union.
Initially, in order to pinpoint milestones in its evolution, Mario Telò outlines fundamental aspects of the ideas of precursors: Machiavelli, Bodin and Hobbes at the dawn of the modern epoch; the constitutional movement through the ideas of John Locke, Montesquieu, US federalists and Jean-Jacques Rousseau; and the advent of the rationalist theory of peace with the ideas of Kant and his cosmopolitism, and the slippage towards nationalism in the ideas of Fichte and, more especially, Hegel. In this intellectual upward climb, the author works his way through changes in ideas about Europe over time, attempting to reveal the deep connection between the internal and external dimensions of so-called 'national' policy. In the preface, Prof. Telo explains that domestic sovereignty has had profound interactions with international sovereignty since the absolutist period of history, via the age of constitutionalism, to the second half of the twentieth century, when it became less possible to imagine the European State in any form other than within the European Union. The author goes on to tell the tale of the resistible rise of aspirations for European unification, from the nineteenth century until the 'transformations of the European State' which the constitutional treaty portended (and continues to portend). To understand the road taken by Europe from sovereign states to the European Union, the author argues that two factors have to be taken into account, namely unifying moves in the direction of peaceful European integration, dialectically anchored in the living historical reality of European states and the social and economic interests they represent; and also, while refusing to promote 'a type of teleological history', Mario Telo makes a very strong case for the development of the idea of Europe until the arrival of the European Union, while being laden with contradictions about its future, between political realism, cosmopolitanism, nationalism, constitutionalism and the Western and pan-European dimensions, the idea of Europe has nevertheless been marked by the 'absolute originality' of the European institutions. He therefore sees the European Union as an absolute novelty, enriching and innovating debate on the heritage of the classics, on fundamental political concepts of sovereignty, representation, citizenship, identity, and the democratic public arena.
This book is so detailed and brimming with such perfectly accessible pearls of wisdom that it cannot be summed up. As a taster, we can simply follow Prof. Mario Telò's marshalling of thought in the three big currents of European supranational thought. Democratic Catholicism gave a strong impulse to the birth of the 'Carolingian Europe' and also came up with the concept of subsidiarity, not to mention that in the person of Jacques Delors, "Catholic culture, rooted in Emmanuel Mounier and Jacques Maritain and in the experience of French Catholic trade unionism" joined forces "in an original way with the technocratic supranationality inherited from Jean Monnet and with opening up to Scandinavian Social Democratic culture". But 'nationalistic' Catholicism of various countries of Eastern Europe has changed the integration process in a manner unfavourable to supranationality. Liberalism's contribution to the supranational aspects of the European project was also been decisive - before, that is, the radicalising of free market ideas and the laissez-faire ideology of neo-liberal, monetarist thinkers in the 1980s led, with Margaret Thatcher and her heirs, to a growth of Euroscepticism. Social Democracy did not look very favourably on the idea of building Europe at the beginning, being more concerned with building a national base. But a new generation, Brandt, Mitterrand, Gonzalez, Rocard, Blair and company, have brought Social Democracy closer to the European Union… just before the EU became seen by ordinary people as being not just a 'resource' but also a restriction. Hence, as Prof. Telò explains, the withdrawal of some parts of the Socialist movement, particularly in France but also elsewhere, into neo-Republican ideas based on a simplistic reading of Rousseau, pitting the traditional concept of popular sovereignty against the European Commission's technocratic power, seen as a symbol of unfair free market supranationalism that should be rejected as illegitimate. Perhaps this is one explanation for the damage caused by a certain referendum campaign?
Michel Theys
*** YOURI DEVUYST: The European Union Transformed. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes - Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. e-mail: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.net ). "European Policy" series, No. 27. 2005, 204 pp. ISBN 90-5201-278-4.
Lecturer in European policy and the European Institutions at the Belgian Dutch-language university Vrij Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Brussels, after working in the Cabinet of the EU Competition Commissioner and in the offices of three Belgian foreign ministers, Youri Devuyst has revised and updated his book on "The European Union at the Crossroads". The book focuses on the European institutions and the 'Community Method' which many people see as having won peace in Europe, the main objective of the European project. Its importance has been underlined by Jacques Delors, who said: 'Experience shows that when we stray from this Method, Europe goes nowhere'. The importance of the institutions arises from the fact that the outcome of many political debates is generally determined by the selections and choices made in advance by the institutions. The author demonstrates, however, that the prospect of new Member States joining the EU - and then their actual joining - has pressurised the institutions to change and adapt. Hence the utility of this book looking at the different facets of the European institutions in six chapters, ranging from the history of the Community Method to the European Union's political future. The chapters are subdivided into well-defined, structured sub-topics like the origin, composition and role of the Council. The book includes boxes of more technical details and other information to describe the historic background of the current situation and future challenges. The boxes are user-friendly and clear, avoiding the risk of getting lost in detail and not very relevant considerations. Readers wanting more information about any particular issue will find a suggested reading list at the end of each sub-chapter.
(FRo)
*** DANIELE CARAMANI, YVES MENY (Eds.): Challenges to Consensual Politics. Democracy, Identity, and Populist Protest in the Alpine Region. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes - Peter Lang (see above). "Regionalism and Federalism" series, No. 6. 2005, 258 pp. ISBN 90-5201-250-4.
Although sub-divided into a series of countries, the Alps is a region with a strong common identity that persists to this day. There are common elements found in the identity of the Alps region, like attachment to a region smaller than the state unit, populism and suspicion of the European project. The first part of the book looks at the general characteristics of the Alpine region and how the specific nature of the terrain provides fertile ground for right wing populism based on the specifics of inward-looking identity (focussing on being 'different' from others) and virulent rejection of traditional representative, consensus democracy. He explains how the European Union is viewed and described by such parties as a threat, another level of power on top of the rest with precious little democratic legitimacy, promoting antagonism between ordinary people and the elite. The second part of the book looks in more detail at the various populist parties and their characteristics, like the Liga Nord in Italy and the FPÖ in Austria. There is a brief summary of each chapter in the contents pages to help readers find their way around the book and gain a better idea of it. The book looks specifically at the Alps, but issues covered in the book like identity, democracy, the European Union and the rise of populism are relevant outside the region and are worth a read.
(FRo)
*** RUSSELL F. FARNEN, HENK DEKKER, CHRIST'L DE LANDTSHEER, HEINZ SÜNKER, DANIEL B. GERMAN (Eds.): Democratization, Europeanization, and Globalization Trends. Cross-National Analysis of Authoritarianism, Socialization, Communications, Youth and Social Policy. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen, Switzerland. Fax: (41-32) 3761727 - Internet: http://www.peterlang.de ). "Work - Technology - Organization - Society" series, No. 29. 2005, 495 pp. ISBN 3-631-51936-2.
Research into politicisation, or the way people acquire political opinions, how these opinions change and the impact they have on the political life of the country where they live, has been in decline since the early 1980s due to lack of interest among researchers in the US (who regard the subject as evidence of not wanting to accept change). But as Robert M. Merelman points out, "… one of the chief ironies of contemporary social science is that our image of socialisation has blurred at precisely the moment when the actual processes of socialisation have taken on a unique political significance". This should encourage political and social science researchers to pay greater attention to the phenomenon to try and achieve better understanding of changes and lack of change in the world, the political socialisation of the population and its huge impact on the emergence or survival of political systems in a country. There have been many changes in this connection, with changes to family structure, the education system, the media and how the media are used. The thirty-three authors of this book, from eight different countries, look at what these changes mean in terms of ordinary peoples' connections with politics. They look at education and the formation of identity, sometimes through extreme cases like Aborigine children in Australia forcibly removed from so-called barbarism (living with their families) and brought up in orphanages, or the children of executed Chilean leftists given to members of the police force or army to be brought up. The book also looks at popular movements, like a Polish movement to stop the building of a dam, started in the Communist era but defended hand and fist by the post-Communist government, and the 'women in black' movement in Israel. The countries of the former Soviet bloc are an excellent substratum to study, whether in terms of authoritarianism (the book looks at the political beliefs of Israelis hailing from the former Soviet Union) or different perceptions of the European project in the old and new Member States. A chapter on the European project takes up a quarter of the book and is too detailed to be resumed with any accuracy. This is a reference book on the subject of political socialisation, helping readers gain better understanding of the world we live in.
(FRo)
*** MARINA GRZINIC: Une fiction reconstruite. Europe de l'Est, post-socialisme et retro-avant-garde. L'Harmattan (5-7 rue de l'École-Polytechnique, F-75005 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40467920 - Fax: 43258203 - E-mail: diffusion.harmattan@wanadoo.fr). "Ouverture philosophique" series. 2005, 226 pp,€20. ISBN 2-7475-8306-6
The author starts by pointing out that people in Western Europe do not tend to think very much about Eastern Europe, the former 'Second World' being little more than a huge gap that tends to be ignored, going directly to the Third World. Marina Grzinic aims to enlighten readers and provide new insight into Eastern Europe by studying its retro-avant-garde art and looking at the world of the media (the author is very interested in virtual reality so she covers digital media as well) to provide a positive image of the visible to open the door to new opinions for establishing emancipated policy and a positive social environment. The author describes her approach as falling within a sociological and political framework, but it is very different from what one generally finds in this field, with most of the book gravitating around art, particularly the retro-avant-garde art of the East (usually from Yugoslavia - the author is Slovenian). The study is philosophical, based on psychoanalysis (mostly the Lacan school). The result is a very original book, but rather esoteric and difficult for the non-initiated to understand. It provides interesting reflections on the role of the media in the former Yugoslav wars but will be of greater interest to philosophers and art historians than traditional political scientists and sociologists.
(FRo)
*** L'Europe en formation. Les cahiers du fédéralisme. Centre international de formation européenne (10 av. des Fleurs, F-06000 Nice. Tel: (33-4) 93979397 - Fax: 93979398 - E-mail: europe.formation@cife.org - Internet: http: //http://www.cife.org ). 2005, No. 4, 78 pp, €11. Annual subscription: €30.
This issue of a magazine set up by Alexandre Marc looks at corporate governance and a speech by Czech prime minister Jiri Paroubek. It also considers the movements behind 'personalist thought', the 'New Order', sovereignty and China.
(PBo)
*** First European Quality of Life Survey: Life satisfaction, happiness and sense of belonging. European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Wyattville Road, Loughlinstown, IE-Dublin 18. Tel: (353-1) 2043100 - Fax: 2824209 - E-mail: postmaster@eurofound.eu.int - Internet: http://www.eurofound.eu.int ). 2005, 102 pp. ISBN 92-897-0924-3
This is the second part of the survey on quality of life in Europe published last week, looking at the EU25, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. One of the main aims of European social policy is to improve quality of life: 'However, interventions to promote subjective well-being have not been explicitly at the centre of a European social policy strategy up to now and research results on subjective well-being often fail to underline their major policy implications.' This analytical study aims to fill the gap by attempting to determine connections between subjective concepts like happiness and satisfaction and factors like income, national prosperity, housing, social life and solidarity.
*** Youth Opinion. European Youth Forum (120 rue Joseph II, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2306490 - Fax: 2302123 - E-mail: press@youthforum.org). 2005, No. 1, 26 pp.
European Youth Forum is an international umbrella organisation of national youth councils and youth NGOs, providing information and a means of relaying young people's opinions and expectations to politicians. This unusually laid-out magazine gives information about the Forum and its work to support and ensure the continuity of its member youth organisations in various regions of Europe.
*** Documents. Revue des questions allemandes. BILD (50 rue de Laborde, F-75008 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 43879042 - Fax: 42935094 - E-mail: potier@bild-documents.org - Internet: http://www.revuedocuments.com ). October 2005, special issue, 112 pp, €9-15. Annual subscription: €39.
This entire special issue is devoted to the horrible way women were treated in German Nazi concentration camps. The essays were contributions for a conference organised to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps and the French translation of the book by historian Bernhard Strebel on Ravensbrück, un complexe concentrationnaire. They focus on the Ravensbruck concentration camp for women (north of Berlin) and look at how the camp was run between 1933 and the end of the war, the gruesome 'medical experiments' carried out there, and the forced marches at the end of the war. Some articles shed light on the categories of forgotten victims.
*** Norway. OECD Publications (2 rue André-Pascal, F-75775 Paris cedex 16. E-mail: SourceOECD@oecd.org - Internet: http://www.oecd.org ). Economic Surveys. October 2005, No. 17, 133 pp.. ISBN 92-64-01294-x
This is a detailed economic survey of Norway, carefully examining economic indicators and various other statistics, the legal set-up and the country's social structure to provide an assessment of the economy and put forward recommendations. It pays particular attention to the viability of Norway's pension and social security systems. The country is doing well, compared with many other countries, but the OECD calls for reforms of the pensions system and cost cutting in healthcare.
Reviews in Brief
***Focus sur la Flandre. Editions Lannoo. October 2005, Tielt. This magazine (also published in English and Dutch) is a review of articles from Flemish media on current events in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) like tensions between trade unions and employers, real estate and an exhibition about Rubens' son. ***Sinfo. Government PR and Media Office. October 2005, Ljubljana. This magazine provides information about Slovenia, looking at the countryside around the capital, Ljubljana, and describing innovation in the country.