*** CHRISTIAN DUNCKER: Was ist los mit den Deutschen? Ein aktuelles empirischen Stimmungsbild und mittelfristige Trends. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - E-mail: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.de ). 2006, 267 pp, €27-90. ISBN 3-631-54362-X.
Fascinating and surprising, this research raises many unresolved questions. The author has been employed for years in empirical research into changing society and here he analyses changes in German public opinion and attitudes from 1994 to 2005. The author is already known for a previous book published by the same publishing house, Peter Lang, in 1998 on aspects of changing values in Germany. In the current book, he takes as his starting point a collective sulk by the German population as a result of economic and political crises and the rapid changes in the world at the start of the twenty-first century, attempting to describe the background to this change in mindset and attitudes to a series of selected values intended to shed light on past changes and possibly future changes until the end of this decade or thereabouts.
The book is rich in information from solidly backed sources, along with comments and reflections, making it into a useful book for specialists but also an interesting read for an educated audience. The author recognises at the start that change has its own momentum in all human societies. The suggested causes of the changes, particularly during the period of time studied in Germany, are in the author's view the collapse of communism; natural industries morphing into intelligent industries; demographic change with an expanding world population moving around and ageing; national economies turning into a global economy; and new rules of the game for deciding on relationships among countries. He adds that the list should be expanded to include changes in the welfare state, a radicalisation of religious life in both West and East, the world going digital and leading to increased production efficiency and massive progress in communications, and a high and growing market saturation in most consumer goods markets. The problem is soon raised in the book but no truly satisfying answer is given to whether changes which affect society come first and foremost from a change in the structures of community life, as the above list would suggest, or whether it is rather the result of a change in individuals' mentalities and attitudes. The author prefers to focus his attention on virtually exclusive analysis of 'values', which are defined as 'the reference systems for human attitudes', and he devotes his long analysis to empirical research into how values have changed.
Impossible to provide a full picture here of all the values analysed in the book, which cover attitudes to the family, personal relationships, private and social life, the meaning of time and pleasure, achievements in work and leisure, fidelity to traditional values, the meaning of culture, etc. The analysis takes account of changes in the values over the decade under study. The book comments that the main characteristic of the changes during this period is a strong rise in affirmation of aspects of one's character and growing self-awareness. Recognition of this is shown by empirical data. The author attempts to sketch out possible changes in the future based on new opinion polls, confirming this trend by the recognition of the importance of individuality in the values most often mentioned for the medium-term future (until the end of the decade), which focus on the family and personal relationships, the need for security, financial independence and self-fulfilment. But he sees this trend continuing and, based on his analysis, he explains that for modern individualists, the security of traditions is not as important as a dynamic look at the future. Modern individualists take their life into their own hands and based on this synthesis of wholly new values, individuality will also be one of the values of the future.
The author's suggestions of future developments take account of this change in values. While the need for security, one of the leading values selected by individuals, is still based on a level of anxiety experienced in the face of unpredictable and unexpected structural changes, it will be mastered. When the many structural changes still awaited and required (like the European unification process or the reformulation of state security systems) have been completed, human beings will experience rest, explains the author. And it is from this position of rest that they will again feel like participating in new changes, but this will not happen until after 2010 due to the sheer mass of duties still to be mastered. The year 2010 is of significance to the author in terms of changing values. He concludes that in this process of changing values, 2010 will see the birth of a new atmosphere, making a break with what is now generally present. This break will lead human beings to new and rising self-awareness which, from their boosted sense of ego, will lead to an even greater focus on consumerism and innovation. Is it possible to predict such a future from opinion polls on changes in the hierarchy of values in public opinion? This question has to be asked, not to challenge the serious work carried out by Christian Duncker, but rather because habitual prudence requires it to be raised with regard to any over-certain predictions about the future. We can dream about the future, of course, and sunny futures should drive the spirit of everyone wanting to change the world (as was the case for the founding fathers of the EU), but empirically deducing future direction based on past changes seems too great a risk. Nevertheless, all readers of this book will emerge enriched with new questions.
Gabriel Fragnière
*** MARCEL COURTHIADE: Sagesse et humour du peuple rrom. Proverbes bilingues rromani-français. Editions L'Harmattan (5-7 rue de l'Ecole Polytechnique, F-75005 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40467920 - Fax: 43258203 - e-mail: diffusion.harmattan@wanadoo.fr - Internet: http://www.editions-harmattan.fr ). 2006, 213 pp, €19-50. ISBN 2-296-02271-5.
The language and linguistic rights commissioner of the International 'Rromani Union' who heads the Rromani language and civilisation unit at Paris University, Marcel Courthiade, quotes some 1600 proverbs in this book in Rromani and their French translation, used by the Rroms, Sintes and Kales of the whole of Europe, from the Mediterranean to Central Europe via England and northern countries. The book helps readers discover a community of the EU which is still largely unknown at the start of the twentieth century and, for some, distasteful. Readers will also discover popular wisdom that fortunately sounds the death knell for certain stereotypes. (MT)
*** GUIDO THIEMEYER, HARTMUT ULLRICH (Eds.): Europäische Perspektiven der Demokratie. Peter Lang (see above). 2005, 333 pp, €52-80. ISBN 3-631-39755-0.
This collection of essays arose from a conference at Kassel University in Germany in 2000 that brought together diverse contemporary and historical analyses of changes to democracy in Europe. The initiative took account of the fact that the third wave in the history of the development of democratic forms of government (the first stretched from the eighteenth century to the Second World War, the second from the end of WW2 to the 1980s) experienced new developments in central and Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and in many developing countries following the end of colonial rule. The two editors explain in the introduction that the number of countries where there was democracy rose from around 70 at the start of the 1990s to more than 120 when the book was published (in 2005). Moreover, and this is the particularly European interest of the book, the EU itself (there is an article analysing the historic causes of the democratic deficit the EU is criticised for) seems to be filling the democratic deficit by the prospects set out in the constitutional treaty. This book discusses the European prospects of recent democratic developments. Alongside the first three rather more theoretical essays, the book also looks at the links between democracy, development and security in EU policies, debate surrounding the democratisation of EU structures, the problem of possible democratic gaps in the member states, and the growth of democratic parties in central Europe. A very rich, well-structured and extremely important book at a time when Europe is trying to establish new forms of common governance. (GFr)
*** DOMINIK HANF, RODOLPHE MUNOZ (Eds.): La libre circulation des personnes. Etats des lieux et perspectives. Presses Interuniversitaires - Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. e-mail: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Cahiers du Collège d'Europe" series, No. 5. 2007, 329 pp, €39-90. ISBN 978-90-5201-061-8.
The proceedings of a conference organised four years ago by the 'Institut d'études juridiques européennes' (European Legal Studies Institute) of Liège University in Belgium, and the Legal Studies Department of the College of Europe, this book starts by drawing up a balance sheet of the free circulation of individuals in the European Union, covering both EU citizens (in the light of the establishment of a European penal area and the special situation in countries where derogations apply) and citizens of other parts of the world, looking at the extension of rights to the latter and the gradual establishment of a separate system. The second part of the book outlines prospects for completing the free circulation of individuals, both for EU citizens (how freedom to circulate meshes with healthcare, social security and direct taxation) and other people. (MT)
*** JEAN-YVES CARLIER: La condition des personnes dans l'Union européenne. De Boeck & Larcier (39 rue des Minimes, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-10) 482500 - Fax: 482519 - e-mail: commande@deboeckservices.com - Internet: http://www.deboeck.com ). "Précis de la Faculté de Droit de l'Université catholique de Louvain". 2007, 485 pp, €129. ISBN 978-2-8044-2456-5.
Jean-Yves Carlier is a lawyer and professor at the Law Faculty of the 'Université catholique de Louvain' in Belgium. He has written this summary for students of European law, although many other readers will also find it useful. Divided into two sections (on migrants and non-migrants), the book analyses the contribution of European substantive law through legal texts and case law in six areas with a growing influence on the situation of individuals within the EU, namely internal circulation (free circulation), external circulation (migration policy), fundamental rights, citizenship, justice and social life. (PBo)
*** HENRI JACOT, ANNIE FOUQUET (Eds.): Le citoyen, l'élu, l'expert. Pour une démarche pluraliste d'évaluation des politiques publiques. L'Harmattan (5-7 rue de l'École polytechnique, F-75005 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40467920 - Fax: 43258203 - e-mail: harmattan1@wanadoo.fr - Internet: http://www.librairieharmattan.com ). "La Librairie des Humanités" series. 2007, 241 pp, €22. ISBN 978-2-296-02875-3.
This book publishes some of the most interesting contributions from the Seventh Study Days organised by the French Evaluation Society which, under the heading of "A qui et à quoi sert l'évaluation", aimed to provide greater understanding of the role of non-specialists, mainly elected officials, citizens and the media, in assessment mechanisms, and to deal better with the problems they face. At a time when participatory democracy has the wind in its sails, it has become necessary to re-think what evaluation can provide for democratic life. Eric Monnier, who chaired the programming of the conference, explains that the time has come to define criteria to integrate and reintegrate citizens in the various stages of evaluation processes and encourage the emergence of empowerment evaluation. This book, entitled 'Citizens, Elected Officials, Experts,' does not take the form of a comprehensive handbook on evaluation and how to organise it for all stakeholders. Neither does it claim to provide a decisive answer to the question of the role of citizens because, as Henri Jacot argues, the criteria and modalities of real citizen participation clearly remain to be decided, along with how the commissioners of evaluations relate to experts. Instead, the book provides the shared experience of several researchers, lecturers and practitioners, who pool their academic research and, more importantly, their extremely varied practical case studies. (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 ). 2007, No. 2, 104 pp, €11. Annual subscription: €30.
This issue of the federalist review founded by Alexandre Marc includes contributions on Turkey's application to join the EU (or rather on other roads it would be a good idea to use), the impact of French decolonisation on the integration process, the fate of nomadic communities, and Joseph Stiglitz's ideas on international economic development. (MT)
*** The Federalist Debate. Papers for Federalists in Europe and the World. Einstein Center for International Studies (26 via Schina, I-10144 Turin. Tel/Fax: (+39-011) 4732843 - e-mail: federalist.debate@libero.it - Internet: http://www.federalist.debate.org ). 2007, No. 2, 64 pp.
This issue looks at the role the European Union could take up on the international stage following the failure of the United States' unilateralist dream. (PBo)