*** CÉLINE BELOT, CHRISTOPHE BOUILLAUD (Eds.): Amours et désamours entre Européens. Vers une communauté politique de citoyens? L'Harmattan (5-7 rue de l'Ecole Polytechnique, F-75005 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40467920 - Fax: 43258203 - Internet: http://www.editions-harmattan.fr ). "Politique européenne" review, issue 26. 2008, 260 pp, €22-50. ISBN 978-2-296-07486-6.
In its ten years of existence and three issues a year, the relatively new review "Politique Européenne" is not well known outside academia and political science research circles interested in the European project. The first issue, dated April 2000, looked at research into political science and the European Union; and issue number 28 (Spring 2009) discusses the European elections. But here we are reviewing issue 26 because of the novelty of its subject matter, love and hate between Europeans. Edited by Christophe Bouillaud and the review's editor, Céline Belot, both of the Sciences Po (politics) faculty of Grenoble University in France, issue 26 comprises nine fascinating essays that were first presented and discussed at a conference in Grenoble in December 2007 under the auspices of the European Study Section of the 'Association Française de Science Politique'.
In order to be succinct, we will describe the excellent introductory essay by Céline Belot and Christophe Bouillaud, and urge readers (and voters) to read further. First of all, a comment: "For a long time, the question of the role of ordinary people in the European integration process has generated little interest among stakeholders and observers of the stakeholders". "There has been little research into the formation of a community of citizens at EU level". Then a question: "What is the point of a political community?" Answer: "If people create Europe, if Europe is built, it is on a very official level because in that way, Europeans can be created". The authors point out the words of Jean Monnet that tend to be forgotten: "We are not forming a coalition of states; we are unifying human beings". Finally, research guidelines: the structural obstacles to the existence of a community of ordinary people of different languages and separate arenas of the media; Europeans' common values; personal mobility and meeting foreigners; and feelings, including the "feeling mutual dependency based on awareness of common interests". On this latter point, we would like to stress the importance of research through Eurobarometer opinion polls into feelings like "inter-community trust".
There is not enough space here to describe all nine essays by authors of different nationalities on issues as diverse as the contribution by Habermas and the "institutional patriotism model"; the importance of transnational EU programmes when it comes to getting to know foreigners better; the role of cross-border activity (the experience of the cites of Mulhouse and Perpignan in France); indigenous people considering illegal aliens in terms of how to integrate them; the emotional impact of national and European stereotypes; the lack of interest displayed by French nationals and French-speaking Belgians in their European neighbours; the connection between geo-historic proximity, trust and attraction among communities (according to Eurobarometer polls); the importance of football as a shared value; and international cooperation on arms sales. The reader will appreciate the up-to-date-ness and future awareness of this issue. For the final word, we will hand over to the managers of the conference and the editors of this publication, who wonder (and ask readers) "whether between EU Europeans there is anything more than peaceful cohabitation among different nationalities on a motorway in France, in a Mediterranean campsite or standing outside an H&M clothes shop". The answer is not clear but love can be unpredictable, even among Europeans…
Jacques-René Rabier
*** FRANCOIS BAFOIL, TIMM BEICHELT (Eds.): L'européanisation d'Ouest en Est. Editions L'Harmattan (5-7 rue de l'Ecole Polytechnique, F-75005 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40467920- Fax: 43258203 - email: diffusion.harmattan@wanadoo.fr - Internet: http://www.editions-harmattan.fr ). "Logiques politiques" series. 2008, 328 pp, €29-50. ISBN 978-2-296-06684-7.
May the reader beware - discussion of one issue, the impact of Europeanising in this case, can be a cover for many other issues. The idea of Europeanising has been familiar to Russians since the epoch of Peter the Great, when he opened up Saint Petersburg to Western influence. It goes without saying that Peter the Great's Europeanising had nothing to do with the European Union-generated Europeanising. Likewise, in central European countries with their tormented national histories, Europeanising has always been seen as threat that could change or even eliminate those countries' own identity, and this has encouraged them to develop an exaggerated nationalism to protect against this or, among the Jewish communities in particular, to build economic, and cultural ties that cross national borders. But what about these countries today? How is Europeanising under the flag of the EU being experienced? Following on from a research seminar, their book contains essays by scientists (mainly political scientists and sociologists) who look at the current Europeanising in Eastern Europe, comparing and contrasting it with the what is happening in Western Europe and looking to see what lessons can be learned for the EU27 and beyond. This is unusual academic research that has helped to unite the European field by applying the same categories of theoretical approach across Europe from West to East. The result demonstrates that the impact of Europeanising on communities in the East tends to cover all 'polity' rather than simply policies, and it tends to merge into globalisation and modernisation.
(PBo)
*** FRANCOIS CHARBONNEAU, MARTIN NADEAU (Eds.): L'histoire à l'épreuve de la diversité culturelle. 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 ). "Diversitas" series, No. 1. 2008, 173 pp, €25-90. ISBN 978-90-5201-452-4.
Cultural diversity and pluralism shatter existing structures, including accounts of history that have been developed against the traditional backdrop of nation states. The mixing of populations that is expanding throughout the world in the twenty-first century is making countries (in the West at least) believe that each individual is equal to their neighbour even when they are different from one another in their religion, language, culture or race. If we add to this the rising power of doubt about whether truth itself can ever be reached, we have the ingredients for a new historiographic sensitivity that extends beyond national borders or simply, as François Charbonneau and Martin Nadeau explain in the introduction, to an out-and-out rejection because "national history is a barrier to the welcoming of immigrants and reconciliation among communities where divided by past events". Following on from a conference organised by the Chair of research into Canada and Quebec and the UNESCO Chair of research into the philosophy of justice and democratic society, this book brings together some two dozen researchers, who consider the challenges posed by cultural diversity and pluralism when it comes to teaching history. They look at how recognition of the pluralism of modern society can be achieved without having to substantially rewrite the memories or foundations of a culture. Much of the book discusses the controversy surrounding a new course on the history of Quebec and the history of Canada, but Europe is also considered. Looking at the way the interpretation of history has been a source of ethnic conflict in central and Eastern Europe, Magdalena Dembinska shows that open and inclusive policies in these regions have allowed the development of shared political communities rather than a cosmopolitan type of country.
(PBo)
*** SEMIH VANER, DANIEL HERADSTVEIT, ALI KAZANCIGIL (Eds.): Sécularisation et démocratisation dans les sociétés musulmanes. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (see above). "Dieux, Hommes et Religions" series, No. 15. 2008, 335 pp, €32-90. ISBN 978-90-5201-451-7.
Dedicated to Semih Vaner, one of the editors who died before the book was published, this fine work looks at the relationship between Muslim societies and modernity through the prism of the secularisation and democratisation process under way in Muslim countries, which are considered in their full complexity and wider range of different forms. The antithesis of the stereotypes and idées reçues that are so often bandied about by Western politicians and the media, ("At the heart of the European Union there has been a perilous trend for some years to aim to construct a European identity in opposition to the Muslim worlds, which is now seen by some as the new enemy following the collapse of the previous enemy, Communism," comments political analyst Ali Kazancigil in the introductory essay), the authors' scientific analysis (by political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists and historians from various countries working from theoretical and comparative perspectives) demonstrates in a rigorous and cool-headed manner that the tricky relations between Muslim countries and the ideas of secularism and democracy are not essentialist by nature and that Islamic community is in no way a monolith and should be spoken of in terms of Islamic worlds, plural, and 'types of Islam'. There is an essay by a researcher at CNRS in France and the Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg, Franck Frégosi, on Muslims in Western Europe, challenging the oft-repeated claim that Muslims in Western Europe are a single homogenous group of individuals whose behaviour is predetermined by their religion. Instead, he describes Muslims in Western Europe as the key players in their own secularisation.
(MT)
*** EDWARD BEST, THOMAS CCHRISTIANSEN, PIERPAOLO SETTEMBRI (Eds.): The Institutions of the Enlarged European Union. Continuity and Change. Edward Elgar Publishing (The Lypiatts, 15 Lansdowne Road, Cheltenham, Glos GL50 2JA, UK. Tel: (44-1242) 226934 - Fax: 262111 - email: info@e-elgar.co.uk - Internet: http://www.e-elgar.com ). 2008, 262 pp. ISBN 978-1-84720-345-8.
One of the most pressing questions for the two most recent rounds of EU enlargement was the impact of the new countries on the European institutions. How should the new Member States be brought on board while ensuring that the institutional structures were capable of absorbing the shock? The months and years after May 2004 revealed not the institutional question as such but the constitutional crisis in the EU following the French and Dutch 'no' votes rejecting the draft European constitution. Hence most of the debate and negotiations have focussed on the latter, leaving the institutions in the background. Aware of the importance of the institutional issues, a group of researchers from more than fifty academic institutions in Europe got involved in an "EU-Consent" research programme under the 6th Framework Programme for R&D funded by the European Commission, looking at how the EU institutions responded to the arrival of the new Member States. The authors examine changes in 'institutions like the EU Council of Ministers, the European Parliament, the European Central Bank and the European Commission, defining key players, legal trends and measures introduced to ensure the institutions continued to function. The authors include high-ranking officials and academics specialising in the civil service. They highlight that while the EU institutional world avoided collapse by assimilating the new arrivals in a variety of ways, and changing the system without really changing the institutions, there is growing concern about the democratic legitimacy of this process. No doubt this will remain high on the EU's political agenda after the European elections in June 2009.
(NDu)
*** DAVID TURNOCK: The Transition from Communism to the European Union. Restructuring Romania Industry and Agriculture since 1990. Edward Elgar Publishing (see above). 2009, 361 pp. ISBN 978-1-84064-046-5.
After the Romanian Revolution in 1989 that freed Romanian from the iron fist of Ceausescu, the country had to decide on its future. Having to choose between neoliberal capitalism and Communism in the post-Gorbachev perestroika era, it was clear that no third way was practical. This is why Romania's rapprochement with the European Union grew ever more palpable and led in 2007 to full membership of the EU. The years of centralised state control had left the economy, industry and farming almost as backward as during the Middle Ages, and serious reform and economic restructuring were crucial. Most experts argued that the reforms should be sweeping and traumatic. The process of reform has been underway for a decade now - how are they working out in reality? To what extent have the reforms led to a positive outcome and what has been the impact at social and political level? These are some of the questions that David Turnock wanted to answer when he started his research. Professor of Geography at Leicester University in the United Kingdom, David Turnock looks in detail at the transformations in industry, energy and farming, and the impact of introducing a free market system after decades of centralised state planning. He paints a picture of modern Romania and suggests ways the transformations can be continued without forgetting social issues, which have tend to be ignored when a country experiences high levels of economic growth. A fascinating book that will be of particular interest to economists and experts in post-Communism along, of course, with any reader wishing to learn more about Romania and the Balkans in general.
(NDu)