Wait, who Controls the Council? The Role of the Dutch Parliament and Organized Interests to Hold the Council of Ministers Accountable

This paper examines the role of organized interests as indirect scrutinizers of the Council of Ministers. Whereas the ministers of the Council are only accountable to national parliaments, the latter face many difficulties in controlling the former. This is problematic as it potentially increases the EU’s democratic deficit. This thesis researches a possible solution to this problem by testing McCubbins and Schwartz’s fire-alarm theory. McCubbins and Schwartz argue that organized interests can alarm national parliaments who can then scrutinize better. The research focuses on the Netherlands as a most likely case-study. Eleven interviews with prominent Dutch organized interests led to the conclusion that the fire-alarm model functions limitedly at best. The analysis points at two structural impediments -tradeoff and issue-dependence- that explain the lack of interaction between organized interests and national parliaments. Indeed, organized interests prefer contact and collaboration with other actors; most notably the Commission and the EP

WHEN THE POOR WELCOME THE PERSECUTED: Recognizing the Economic Potential of Refugee Reception in Low-income Host Countries

While a ‘burden narrative’ dominates the popular and political discourse regarding the economic impact of refugees, scholars increasingly recognize their economic potential. One such scholar is economist Philippe Legrain who argues that welcoming refugees constitutes “a humanitarian investment that yields economic dividends” (Legrain, 2016, p.1). This paper investigates the validity of such claim in the context of low-income host countries via a comparative analysis of Tanzania and Uganda. The hypotheses derived of Legrain’s work confirm that low-income countries benefit economically as refugees improve market conditions by spurring demand, trade, and entrepreneurialism. Certain policies can strengthen such potential if prioritizing the right to work, freedom of movement and assistance programs encouraging entrepreneurialism. Doing so allows refugees and hosts to mutually benefit rather than to compete for economic opportunities

A Prerequisite for Accountability: Access to Information in the German European Affairs Council

Negotiations in the Council of the European Union have been described as non-transparent since access to certain documents concerning the deliberations is restricted. As a result, national parliaments struggle to hold their national governments to account. Parliaments, providing a direct link between voters and the executive, play a vital role in granting legitimacy to the EU. Their incapacity weakens the democratic legitimacy of the European project. Existing literature on the topic has examined the formal powers of national parliaments and how active they are. However, it has failed to explore their access to information. This paper analyses the access to information on deliberations in the Council by the German European Affairs Committee (EAC) in the Bundestag. Interviews were conducted with members of the German EAC and their EU policy advisors. The analysis revealed that the German EAC employs an extensive network of direct oversight, manually scrutinizing a large number of documents. Certain limitations of this method were revealed, as due to capacity constraints only select decisions were examined. Individual citizens, organized interest and the media were shown to play a role in triggering the oversight at times, thus providing the impetus to start the scrutiny process

TALE E QUALE, OR NOT REALLY? Blackface and the construction of Mediterranean Whiteness on Italian television

In November 2020, on the Italian national television broadcast Tale e quale show (TQS), participant Sergio Muñiz imitated Tunisian-Italian rapper, Ghali, with a performance that received backlash from Ghali himself because of its use of blackface. This is not the first time that blackface was used on  TQS, but the first time that it was used to imitate an Italian artist. In this paper, I analyze what implications this performance has from the perspectives of Cultural Studies, History, and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. I argue that the performance invokes Mediterranean Whiteness to differentiate North-Mediterranean populations from their racialized South-Mediterranean ‘Others’

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION V. FACEBOOK: A Case Study of the Effects of Antitrust Laws on Consumers’ Data Privacy Protection

On December 9, 2020, the United States (U.S.) Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook. The lawsuit is an attempt by the U.S. government to regulate big-tech companies using antitrust laws after noticing the growing concerns of consumers’ data privacy breaches. The use of antitrust laws to regulate consumers’ data protection has been debated extensively by legal scholars; however, the debate focuses too much on theory and ignores the effectiveness of antitrust remedies. This paper looks at Federal Trade Commission v. Facebook, Inc. from both viewpoints of legal theory and practicality. It concludes that even though U.S. antitrust laws have possible jurisdiction over consumers\u27 data privacy protection issues, their available legal remedies are not qualified to ensure consumers\u27 data privacy protection

And yet, it moves: Lobbying Regulation in the Council of Ministers of the European Union

This study aims to explain the commitment of the Council of the European Union to the Inter-Institutional Agreement on a common Transparency Register for interest representatives with the Commission and European Parliament in 2021. To scrutinize this surprising turn in the hitherto transparency-averse position of the Council, this study draws on a set of elite interviews with Council sources and transparency stakeholders. The emerging data are analyzed through a theoretical framework grounded in institutionalist theory, grouped in a strategic, institutional, and ideational dimension. Evidence on a strategic dimension suggests a transparency-averse majority in the Council that explains the overall skepticism of the institution towards advancing lobbying transparency. The institutional dimension reveals the Council as compelled by norm-entrepreneurship and a logic of appropriateness instilled by other institutional actors in the Inter-Institutional Agreement. Lastly, the ideational dimension reveals shifting notions of transparency, as well as effective change agency and knowledge sharing through pro-transparency actors within the Council. The study concludes that, while a merely strategic analysis of institutional change fails to explain reform, a holistic institutionalist perspective, considering different dimensions of institutional change, is well suited to explain the advance of lobbying transparency in the Council. Further research could draw on the tentative findings of this research and attempt a longitudinal assessment of drivers and inhibitors of lobbying transparency in the Council

KILLER ROBOTS IN CONFLICT: The Morality of Artificial Intelligence in Warfare

In light of the fast pace of technological advancement in warfare, this paper is concerned about the moral implications of the use of artificial intelligence in the weaponry industry. Specifically, it provides an interdisciplinary perspective on the application of lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS) in conflict. The concepts of techno-moral implications of Swierstra (2015) and techno-moral boundaries of Kamphof (2017) are applied to the case of LAWS in warfare and provide insights into future changes of morals in war. The key results of this method suggests that LAWS in warfare threaten to erase moral virtues and cause a shift to a less humane reality of war

Media and National Accountability in the European Union : An explorative study on the impediments EU - journalists encounter when fulfilling their accountability role towards national governments

In Western democracies, mass media are the main means through which citizens receive information regarding the European Union. Although national ministers play an important role at the EU level, citizens are not always aware of the national ministers’ activities within the Council. Since citizens mainly experience politics through the media, which act as mediators between the politicians and the public, this paper conceptualizes the media as an accountability forum. The research aims to explore the impediments EU-journalists face in fulfilling their watchdog role towards national governments. By conducting 26 in-depth semi-structured interviews in two EU member states Germany and Italy, this research explores the impediments journalists face at the structural and individual level. The findings revealed that although there is an increasing homogenization of the informational impediments, journalists seem to experience differences due to preferential treatments. Finally, organizational impediments such as political and economic pressure, and the way journalists conceptualize their role, also affect how and what they decide to report

MEETING YOUR MINIMAL SELF? : A Harry Potter-based Exploration of an Encounter Between Two Selves

This paper explores the philosophical problem of self through the lens of the literary example of Harry Potter. The paper first builds a theoretical framework consisting of contemporary conceptions of self as the minimal and narrative self. This framework is then used to analyse the time-travel scene in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, in which two versions of Harry Potter encounter each other. The paper finds that it is not possible for Harry to conceptualise his future self as himself when he encounters himself because for an experience of self, a first-person experience is necessary. This paper provides an illustration of? a thought-experiment of an individual encountering themselves, which is physically impossible and has not been discussed academically. It is thus relevant in exploring a philosophical and physical problem at hand of a popular story, making this thought-experiment easier to grasp

PARTICIPATORY FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN MEXICO CITY: A Literature Review and Case Study

In the context of rapid urbanization and the increasing intensity of flood events in metropolitan areas such as Mexico City, the urban poor became particularly vulnerable to flood hazards. Hence, it is a timely manner to implement inclusive strategies for flood risk management. This study aims to fill the gap in understanding the present conditions, risks, and responses to flood hazards in Mexico City from a people-centered perspective. The paper draws on a purposive literature review and case study approach to explore how public policy can involve community-level actors in flood risk management and thereby, promote long-term sustainability. The findings show that policymakers can shift from technocratic to participatory resilience strategies by investing in generic capacity-building and poverty alleviation with geographic literacy and technological flood control innovations.