The European Union as Empire: Democratic Political Representation in Empire Europe

Abstract. To conceptualise the European Union (‘EU’) as an empire is controversial. Yet, closer examination of the complex phenomenon of empire actually provides a constructive and a valuable understanding of the EU. This article aims to do away with state-centric approaches and examines the democratic political representation of the EU as an empire. Eric Voegelin’s theory of political representation is chosen to create an understanding of political representation in the EU. Voegelin’s focus goes beyond legal and ‘elemental’ approaches to representation and, therefore, allows for an interesting comparison with early empires, providing valuable angles to examine the political reality and symbols of the EU. This study concludes with a realistic perspective on a known problem, on which, by the use of the empire-analogy and a Voegelinian approach, it sheds a new light: democracy, functioning as the basis for unity in the EU, is fragile, and the distrust of Europeans to their representatives results in complications with unifying Europeans. It is an empire, historically seen, that might allow for a configuration for the EU that provides a good way to mitigate and balance differences since empires have an intrinsic relational and structural plurality that delivers, more than a state, unity in diversity.Keywords: European Union, empire, political representation, European identity, Eric VoegelinAbstract. To conceptualise the European Union (‘EU’) as an empire is controversial. Yet, closer examination of the complex phenomenon of empire actually provides a constructive and a valuable understanding of the EU. This article aims to do away with state-centric approaches and examines the democratic political representation of the EU as an empire. Eric Voegelin’s theory of political representation is chosen to create an understanding of political representation in the EU. Voegelin’s focus goes beyond legal and ‘elemental’ approaches to representation and, therefore, allows for an interesting comparison with early empires, providing valuable angles to examine the political reality and symbols of the EU. This study concludes with a realistic perspective on a known problem, on which, by the use of the empire-analogy and a Voegelinian approach, it sheds a new light: democracy, functioning as the basis for unity in the EU, is fragile, and the distrust of Europeans to their representatives results in complications with unifying Europeans. It is an empire, historically seen, that might allow for a configuration for the EU that provides a good way to mitigate and balance differences since empires have an intrinsic relational and structural plurality that delivers, more than a state, unity in diversity.Abstract. To conceptualise the European Union (‘EU’) as an empire is controversial. Yet, closer examination of the complex phenomenon of empire actually provides a constructive and a valuable understanding of the EU. This article aims to do away with state-centric approaches and examines the democratic political representation of the EU as an empire. Eric Voegelin’s theory of political representation is chosen to create an understanding of political representation in the EU. Voegelin’s focus goes beyond legal and ‘elemental’ approaches to representation and, therefore, allows for an interesting comparison with early empires, providing valuable angles to examine the political reality and symbols of the EU. This study concludes with a realistic perspective on a known problem, on which, by the use of the empire-analogy and a Voegelinian approach, it sheds a new light: democracy, functioning as the basis for unity in the EU, is fragile, and the distrust of Europeans to their representatives results in complications with unifying Europeans. It is an empire, historically seen, that might allow for a configuration for the EU that provides a good way to mitigate and balance differences since empires have an intrinsic relational and structural plurality that delivers, more than a state, unity in diversity

Sex Differences in Emotional and Behavioral Responses to HIV+ individuals’ Expression of Distress

Two studies examined the influence of HIV+ individual’s expression of distress on perceivers’ emotional and behavioral reactions. In Study 1 (N = 224), HIV+ individuals’ expression of distress was experimentally manipulated by means of vignettes. Men and women reacted differently when persons with HIV conveyed distress: women reported stronger feelings of pity, whereas men reported stronger feelings of anger. Study 2 (N = 136) replicated this study in a realistic experimental setting with additional behavioral measures. Similarly, women reported stronger pro-social behavior than men when confronted with a person with HIV who conveyed distress. Results of the present study shed additional light to the self-presentational dilemma of ill persons. Conveying moderate levels of distress may evoke prosocial responses in women, but not in men

Public Reactions to People with HIV/AIDS in the Netherlands

A national telephone survey was conducted (1) to assess present-day public reactions to people with HIV/AIDS in the Netherlands, (2) to measure how knowledge about highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is related to public reactions to people with HIV/AIDS, and (3) to investigate determinants of willingness to have personal contact with people with HIV/AIDS. Dutch adults (N = 751) participated in a telephone interview conducted to measure cognitive, emotional and behavioral reactions to people with HIV/AIDS. This study has shown that public reactions to people with HIV/AIDS seem to be moderately positive in the Netherlands. Knowledge about HAART is related to lower risk perceptions, a positive attitude towards homosexuals, less fear and more willingness to have personal contact with people with HIV/AIDS. In particular cognitive, but also emotional factors are meaningfully related to willingness to have personal contact with people with HIV/AIDS. Implications for Dutch AIDS educational campaigns aimed at stigma reduction are discussed

Stability analysis of a multi-phase car-following model

This paper presents a numerical stability analysis of a multi-phase car-following model under mild to severe disturbances. The results show that local stability was always conformed. An asymptotically unstable region was found for traffic in congested states. One of the previously calibrated boundary conditions for close-following situations was found to be in conflict with the stable condition required by the car-following model, which had attributed to speed oscillations during transition of the traffic from a non-congested to a congested state. Suggestions were made to the choice of model parameter values to meet the stability conditions and ways to improve the model

Facilitating healthy dietary habits:An experiment with a low income population

First published online: October 2020This paper tests an intervention aimed at facilitating (cognitively) the adoption of healthy dietary habits. We provide easy-to-understand information about the risks of developing diabetes or heart diseases and give easy-to-follow dietary recommendations to minimize these risks. We implement two variations, one consisting of generic information, the other consisting of information tailored to the individual, the latter resembling newly developed online health assessment tools. On top of the information treatment, we implement a second experimental variation encouraging people to spend more time thinking about their decisions. We find evidence that the information intervention leads to healthier choices in the short run, but mostly in the generic treatment. Surprisingly, we find that people are on average pessimistic about their health, and therefore receive good news on average when the information is tailored to them. We find no evidence that increasing the time available to make choices leads to healthier choices, and find no evidence of long-term changes in habits. These results do not support a bounded rationality explanation for poor dietary choices. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Evaluations of People Depicted With Facial Disfigurement Compared to Those With Mobility Impairment

There are few extant studies of stereotyping of people with facial disfigurement. In the present study, two experiments (both within-participants) showed positive evaluations of people depicted as wheelchair users and, from the same participants, negative evaluations of people with facial disfigurements, compared to controls. The results of Experiment 2 suggested that implicit affective attitudes were more negative toward people with facial disfigurement than wheelchair users and were correlated with evaluation negativity. Social norms were perceived to permit more discrimination against people with facial disfigurement than against wheelchair users. These factors could help to explain the evaluative differences between the two disadvantaged groups

Pity for economically disadvantaged groups motivates donation and ally collective action intentions

We argue that pity can motivate collective action intentions toward groups that are both politically and economically deprived. We tested this connection in four online surveys and an experiment. In Study 1 (N = 1,007), pity for the Roma in Hungary predicted collective action intentions, which was replicated in Study 2 in connection with refugees in Germany (N = 191) and in Hungary (N = 563). Study 3 (N = 475) demonstrated that for not economically but politically disadvantaged groups (e.g., sexual minorities), pity was not a predictor of ally action. In an experiment (Study 4, N = 447), pity was just as strong a predictor of collective action intentions as outrage on behalf of an economically and politically disadvantaged outgroup. Pity can be a mobilizing emotion when it comes to groups that are both economically and politically disadvantaged; however, outrage remains more important in the absence of economic hardship