*** DIDIER GEORGAKAKIS, MARINE DE LASSALLE (Eds.): La "nouvelle gouvernance européenne". Genèses et usages politiques d'un Livre blanc. Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg (9 place de l'Université, F-67084 Strasbourg Cedex. Tel: (32-3) 88259721 - Fax: 88356523 - email: pus@umb.u-strasbg.fr). "Sociologie politique européenne" series. 2007, 391 pp, €24. ISBN 978-2-86820-349-6.
"Governance is one of the raft of neologisms generated by thinktanks and other technocratic milieus and used by reporters and trendy intellectuals that contribute to the globalisation of language and ideas." This quote from sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in 2000 is a perfect illustration of the questions and allergies long generated by the idea of governance in academia. Everyone agrees that it is a portmanteau word, but Didier Georgakakis explains at the start of this book that it is a portmanteau word heavy with meaning. In the introduction to this fine book which has been written over the past six years by a European political sociology group at Robert Schuman University's 'Institut d'études politiques,' Prof. Georgakakis starts by preparing the ground, setting out the origins of the word in economics and what it means in politics and political thought, and the nature and pertinence of the various criticisms it has been subject to in intellectual milieus. The term arose at the World Bank in connection with development aid and was given meat during the free trade mood (mode) of the 1980s, some people arguing that the term postulates that the state is the problem. "As has been demonstrated by study by political scientists of social policies, this economic situation is seeing the overturning of the idea that the state has the job of correcting the failings of the market. It is now the state that is seen to be failing, rather than the market." Hence the criticism from philosophers prophesising the crumbling away of government and more generally slamming anything connected with politics. Who is right and who is wrong here? Everyone must make their own minds up - this book will help them immensely - but it seems legitimate today at this time of global financial turbulence and the subsequent reaction from the public authorities, above all in the United States, to imagine that a new chapter is opening that is marking the compulsory return to grace of public, openly political, authorities.
However that may be, the 'governance' phenomenon has had 'reality consequences' and as far as scientists in Strasbourg are concerned, this means that these effects should be assessed in terms of the way they have been used because, as Prof. Georgakakis explains, even if one acknowledged that the governance theory is a Trojan Horse for neo-liberal globalisation, the socio-political criteria for its triumph would still have to be explained. In this spirit, the book's authors look at the political uses of the 'new European governance' studied by the Prodi Commission in its July 2001 White Paper. In the first part, the origins of the White Paper are explained and Julien Weisbein, Yves Buchet de Neuilly, Xavier Delcourt, Iona Popa, François Foret and Didier Georgakakis survey the relatively heterogeneous framework of the different ways governance gets into the EU institutional area, from the translation problems in which this evolution panned out at various times. As an example, François Foret (of the 'Université Libre de Bruxelles') sheds light on the ambiguity of the White Paper document 'described by its promoters as a strong political action without really taking all its implications on board,' being far more of a bureaucratic announcement of institutional reform than a plan for civilisation, explain the authors. Assiduous observers of the European Commission, and Commission stakeholders, will take particular delight (or umbrage) at the pages where Didier Georgakakis writes on 'governing governance' within the European Commission itself. Erstwhile Commission President Romano Prodi's ambition of using this to impose the Commission as 'Europe's government,' the work of the future planning unit headed by Jérôme Vignon, the allergies caused by the text being prepared in other directorate-generals, the victory in the end going to a more direct, English style that gets straight to the point on 'French tech,' which is the subject of a phenomenally enlightening finely sculpted analysis of what goes on within the European Commission…
The second part of the book looks at how the European Commission's ideas have been received in the wider world. Barbara Delcourt picks apart discussions at the European Parliament on the subject of governance. Hélène Michel looks at civil society and Valérie Lozac'H studies the German authorities. Three authors look into the way the issue is viewed in three big EU Member States: Marine de Lassalle looks at France, Amanda Sloat considers the United Kingdom and Eric Poinsot discusses Germany. The book's essays will help readers gain greater understanding of how EU reality takes form in the institutional set-up.
Michel Theys
*** THIERRY CHOPIN: Le bal des hypocrites. France-Europe. Editions Saint-Simon/Lignes de repères (33 rue Vivienne, F-75002 Paris. Internet: http://www.edsaintsimon.com ). 2008, 218 pp, €19. ISBN 978-2-915134-34-6.
The back cover says that this essay provides the keys to a possible reconciliation between France and the EU. This is true, or at least more than just a marketing slogan. Political scientist lecturing in politics at the French 'Corps des Mines' and the College of Europe, Thierry Chopin provides readers with potentially useful ideas about how to get round the 'paradoxical' relations France has always had with the EU and, at the same time, ideas for helping the European Union get over the 'virus' it is suffering from in terms of politics (the legitimacy crisis), the economy (questions about liberalisation and the role of the EU in globalisation) and geopolitics (whether or not to continue enlarging the EU and the role to play at global level), a virus undermining the EU and that has been plunging it into an 'existential crisis' since the no votes rejecting the European Constitution. Who is right? Who is wrong? The author looks at both sides of the argument with a scathing pen, along with lighter moments and elegant penmanship where he feels it is required both in terms of France and in terms of the EU. He reveals the foundations and cultural meanderings that explain France's ambivalence to the EU - a Jacobin institutional culture out of step with the world of Brussels; an 'anti-free market' economic vision that is difficult to reconcile with the EU market and the wrongly stymied EU competition policy; a French international identity that is ill-at-ease in the enlarged EU, etc. On the other side, a snowballing EU dynamic not characterised by in-depth considerations of the benefits of free-exchange ideas and without the Barroso Commission asking the crucial question of whether an economic enterprise can in and of itself encourage people and politics to line up with it? This excellent question is clearly a concern for other countries apart from France. Likewise for other issues and ideas discussed in this committed but open-minded book that urges readers to shake off newspeak, politically correct doctrine and received ideas.
(MT)
*** SYMEON KARAGIANNIS, YVES PETIT (Eds.): Le médiateur européen: bilan et perspectives. Bruylant (67 rue de la Régence, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5129842 - Fax: 5119477 - email: jean@bruylant.be - Internet: http://www.bruylant.be ). "Rencontres européennes" series. 2007, 182 pp, €40. ISBN 978-2-8027-2436-0.
Established by the Maastricht Treaty, the European Ombudsman started work in 1995. As Syméon Karagiannis and Yves Petit explain in the preface, this "institution" came to meet a need felt by ordinary Europeans, namely the need for 'less formalistic, less procedure-based, quicker, cheaper (free in fact) justice that gives fairness a role'. The book aims to describe the environment in which the European Ombudsman developed and to take stock of the first years of the Ombudsman's work. In the first part of the book there are essays on the Ombudsman's powers and the relationships drawn up by the post holder with other EU bodies and institutions and with national ombudsmen. The second part of the book looks at the Ombudsman's contributions to EU citizenship and the protection of fundamental rights. Along with scientific essays explaining the ins and outs of the legal solutions often suggested by the European Ombudsman, the proceedings of a round table are set out in the third part of the book, a roundtable held at a conference organised at the European Parliament by the 'Centre d'Etudes Internationales et Européennes' of Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg, where practitioners, the current European Ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros, the French ombudsman, the Swedish ombudsman, the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, the secretary of the European Parliament's Petitions Committee and a representative of the European Commission's Secretariat General give their hands-on opinions.
(PBo)
*** METIN AKSOY: Die Türkei auf dem Weg in die EU. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (+41 32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Publications universitaires européennes" series, No. 543. 2007, 144 pp, €25-90. ISBN 978-3-631-556164-5.
This thesis in politics for Vienna University by a student who was born in Turkey looks at Turkey's relations with the European Union from 1990 to the end of 2004, in other words from the February 1990 EU Council's rejection of Turkey's application to join the EU until the decision by the European Council that decided that Turkey could join after all and accession talks would begin in October 2005. The reasons given to justify this long wait are connected with the democratic deficit, human rights issues, the differing level of economic development compared with the EU, and cultural differences. The author explains what has been done by Turkey and the EU to bring about a meeting of minds. The prime merit of this book is the fact is has been written by someone who was born in Turkey who makes the case of Turkey joining the EU. Analysis of the doubts and criticisms often expressed within the EU are supplemented by arguments to show that Turkey is open to European values. The book stresses Turkey's desire to become more Western after the Ottoman Empire, with particular emphasis on the secular nature of the country and freedom of religion. There is an analysis of the political, diplomatic and security role that Turkey could play in the region to the benefit of the European Union. The book will help readers understand the background to the current situation.
(GFr)
*** TOM MOYLAN, RAFFAELLA BACCOLINI (Eds.): Utopia Method Vision. The use value of social dreaming. Editions Peter Lang (32 Hochfeldstrasse, Postfach 746, CH-3000 Bern 9. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Ralahine Utopian Studies" series, No. 1. 2007, 345 pp, €40-50. ISBN 978-03910-912-8.
In the current political and cultural climate, utopian ideas and aspirations are usually rejected, either because they are felt to be pipedreams or because some see them as the quickest way to arrive at authoritarianism. Long ignored by researchers, the utopia theory has sparked increasing interest since the turn of the new millennium among academics, who have noticed that despite the tendency for utopian ideas to be rejected, such ideas are still very much in the forefront of the political and socio-economic domains of modern life. The Irish 'Ralahin' centre for research into Utopia invited twelve researchers in utopian studies to attend a two-year research seminar, where they were asked to describe the approach they take in their research to utopian practices and objectives (in the form of predictions and social visions set out in social writings and experiences) and the extent to which their discoveries and conclusions have influenced their intellectual work and their research prospects. In the twelve chapters, the participants describe the subject of their research and the methods used, setting out new fields of research and application and material for future debates. The aim of the seminar was to obtain the new data needed to extend the field of investigation.
(NDu)
*** MICHAEL J. GRIFFIN, TOM MOYLAN (Eds.): Exploring the Utopian Impulse. Essays on utopian though and practice. Editions Peter Lang (see above). "Ralahine Utopian Studies" series, No. 2. 2007, 434 pp, €38-40. ISBN 978-3-03910-913-5.
The Irish 'Ralahin' centre for research into utopia looks in this second volume in a new series at reflection on the utopian impulse, exploring the topic from the ideological, literary and political viewpoints, with an entire section of the book on each domain. The ideological, literary and political aspects were also discussed at the first international conference organised by Ralahin and this collection of essays looks solely at studies into the nature and expression of Utopia. The book starts with considerations of utopia in art, collective memory and philosophy, and how utopian thought meshes with the past, present and future. The second part of the book is devoted to utopian writings, investigating the utopian options, representations and incongruities expressed by various writers. Utopia is then viewed through the prism of science fiction in an article on H. G. Wells' The Time Machine; post-punk in William Gibson's "Neuromancer"; and through the Lacaanian filter whereby utopia is simply a desire for the unattainable. The last part of the book studies international communities and political impulses involving utopian ideas.
(NDu)