Nuevas dinámicas de medios e integración europea

This article addresses the question whether the potential of mass media as a motor of social integration, order and unity can be transposed from the national to the transnational and European level of society. The issue is how the media (new and old) can re-establish the link between social order and democratic legitimacy that characterized the national public sphere. To approach this question of the relationship between the media, a new transnational (European) society and democracy the article delivers a general account of how media (old and new) interact with the project of European integration. Can we speak in any meaningful way of the mass media as a facilitator of European integration? Or are the mass media the major obstacle to the political efforts to further integrate Europe. The notion of an EU mediatized democracy is introduced to understand this interplay between EU institutions and various attentive publics in the contestation of EU legitimacy.El presente artículo trata la cuestión de si el potencial vertebrador de los medios de comunicación de masas como motor de la integración social, el orden y la unidad pueden ser trasladados del nivel nacional de la sociedad al trasnacional y europeo. Se trata de cómo los medios (nuevos y viejos) pueden re-establecer el nexo entre orden social y legitimidad democrática que caracteriza la esfera pública nacional. Para aproximarnos a la relación entre los medios, una nueva sociedad y una democracia trasnacional (europea) el artículo ofrece una panorámica general de cómo los medios (tradicionales y nuevos) interfieren en el proyecto de integración europea. ¿Podemos hablar con sentido de los medios como facilitadores de la integración europea?¿O son los medios un gran obstáculo para los esfuerzos políticos de integrar Europa? La noción de una democracia europea mediatizada se introduce para entender las interacciones entre las instituciones de la Unión Europea y los diversos públicos que contestan la legitimidad de la UE

Territoriality of Law and the International Trade Game: Towards a New Institutional Economics of International Transactions

The conventional theory of international trade is dominated by a model presupposing a legal order that is perfect in its specifications and controllability, binding for all economic agents, no matter their nationality. World order appears to be cosmopolitan in the sense of Kant. An international private law community such as this, however, does not exist. In fact, there is a multitude of legal orders and a territoriality of law, leading to problems largely neglected in the traditional theory of international trade. They are at the heart of what we would like to call the New Institutional Economics of International Transactions (NIEIT) – a research program which started from a monograph published in 1990 (see Schmidt-Trenz 1990). This paper addresses two questions: Which specific problems emerge in contracts and the contracting process because of factors such as the multitude of legal orders and the territoriality of law? What solutions are there to these problems a) on the level of the law, and b) in the shadow of the law or completely independent of it (?private ordering?)? How do they work from an efficiency point of view? We restrict attention to the international exchange of goods. However, the insights gained can be transferred to other types of transactions, such as international finance transactions, direct investment, and investment agreements. --conflict of law,international private law,transaction costs,enforcement of judgements,private ordering

Converging towards Euroscepticism? Negativity in news coverage during the 2014 European Parliament elections in Germany and the UK

In the run up to the 2014 European Parliament elections, the new Spitzenkandidaten process and European-wide party campaigns were considered a mechanism to create a more engaged European public. However, right-wing Eurosceptic party groupings gained a significant minority of the seats in the 2014 EP elections. We place this in the context of media and public sphere dynamics of politicised EP elections that have given selective salience to Euroscepticism. We discuss two interrelated media biases that explain this convergence of public debates towards Euroscepticism: a media negativity bias in the selection and tonality of EU news and a media polity bias that privileges contestation of the constitutional make-up of the EU over political and policy-based debates. To investigate these media biases empirically, we analyse EP election news during the 2014 European Parliament elections, taking Germany and the UK as ideal-type cases. We find that the UK news demonstrates a strong negative bias towards the EU polity, whereas in Germany EP debates focus more strongly on EU politics and policies and in fact demonstrate a positivity bias with regard to assessments of the legitimacy of the EU polity

The Mediatization of Politics. From the National to the Transnational

The mediatization of politics is generally explained in relation to the legitimacy requirements of the modern state and as such, it is typically confined to the national media sphere. Can we speak in any meaningful way of mediatization beyond the national? The European Union (EU), which operates under increasing legitimacy constraints and is exposed to the salience of media debates that contest its public legitimacy, is a case in point. Is the EU becoming mediatized? And what are the effects of EU mediatization? Under what conditions can the mass media become a facilitator of European integration? The issue at stake is whether the media (new and old) can have an integration function beyond the national and facilitate the building of democratic legitimacy of the European Union. We propose that the concept of mediatization offers the theoretical and analytical tools necessary to understand precisely how the interaction between the EU polity and the media unfolds and how it impacts on the process of the EU’s public legitimation. First we deliver a general account of mediatization, highlighting its core definers and main points of critique that the concept has attracted. We then show how mediatization is relevant to the EU pol­ity and propose an analytical model that can capture this process empiricall

The Mediatization of Politics. From the National to the Transnational

The mediatization of politics is generally explained in relation to the legitimacy requirements of the modern state and as such, it is typically confined to the national media sphere. Can we speak in any meaningful way of mediatization beyond the national? The European Union (EU), which operates under increasing legitimacy constraints and is exposed to the salience of media debates that contest its public legitimacy, is a case in point. Is the EU becoming mediatized? And what are the effects of EU mediatization? Under what conditions can the mass media become a facilitator of European integration? The issue at stake is whether the media (new and old) can have an integration function beyond the national and facilitate the building of democratic legitimacy of the European Union. We propose that the concept of mediatization offers the theoretical and analytical tools necessary to understand precisely how the interaction between the EU polity and the media unfolds and how it impacts on the process of the EU’s public legitimation. First we deliver a general account of mediatization, highlighting its core definers and main points of critique that the concept has attracted. We then show how mediatization is relevant to the EU pol­ity and propose an analytical model that can capture this process empiricall

Civic engagement through mainstream online newspapers: Possibilities and shortcomings

Based on a pilot study of online news making and commenting in Denmark, the article discusses the relationship between online political news making and democracy. Empirical insights on the dynamics of user engagement and debates on mainstream Danish online news platforms are used to delineate the contours of the online public sphere. It is argued that the new digital media should be discussed not only as a new forum for political participation but also in relation to traditional forms of representative democracy. The analysis comprises the technical features and apps that are designed by online news providers in Denmark to facilitate the constitution of new “voice publics”. How these voice publics are designed as an element of news making and news distribution and, as such, linked to the old “representative” and “attentive publics” of news consumption is investigated

Verfassung ohne Integration in Europa? Auf der Suche nach einem sozialen Konstituenten transnationaler Integrationsprozesse

"Auch ohne den expliziten Prozess europäischer Verfassungsgebung zum Abschluss zu bringen, wird die Konstitutionalisierung der Europäischen Union in der Form einer Formalisierung und Legalisierung von Herrschaft voranschreiten. Die Verfasstheit des europäischen Gemeinwesens tritt dabei zunehmend in Widerspruch zur Verfasstheit des sozialen Konstituenten von Herrschaft, der weder als 'Demos' noch als 'Volk' in einem gesamteuropäischen Entscheidungszusammenhang in Erscheinung tritt. Allerdings mündet die Konstitutionalisierung der EU in dem Postulat eines 'europäischen Demos' als Voraussetzung der Legitimität europäischen Regierens. Die daran anschließende empirische Frage lautet, inwiefern solche geteilte normative Erwartungshaltungen in die Existenz eines europäischen 'Demos' kommunikative Austauschprozesse über die nationalstaatlichen Grenzen hinweg anleiten. Im europäischen Verfassungsgebungsprozess werden die Standards für ein demokratisches und legitimes Regieren im Mehrebenensystem der EU ausgehandelt. Welche kollektive Repräsentationen der sozialen Konstituenten von Demokratie in Europa werden dabei vermittelt? Gestützt auf einer multivariablen Inhaltsanalyse von Pressekommentaren werden Kollektivrepräsentationen in der Aushandlung einer Verfassung für Europa nachgezeichnet. Das Untersuchungsdesign umfasst Qualitätszeitungen aus fünf Mitgliedsländern (Deutschland, Frankreich, Großbritannien, Dänemark und Schweden) und einem Nicht-Mitgliedsland (Norwegen). Die Stimme der Medien wird dabei ferner mit der Stimme von Akteuren/ Sprechern in den Medien abgeglichen. Im Ländervergleich kann die unterschiedliche Intensität von Verfassungsdebatten in Ländern mit oder ohne Referendum auf die Frage nach der Stellvertreterfunktion und der kollektiven Relevanz der aufgegriffenen Themen zugeführt werden." (Autorenreferat

Enlargement of the European Union and the approximation of law: Lessons from an economic theory of optimal legal areas

Before joining the European Union countries from Central and Eastern Europe have to adopt the acquis communautaire, i.e. the system of legal rules developed in the Union. The paper outlines an economic theory of optimum legal areas, that is used to determine the optimal size of the Union as well as winners and losers of enlargement. The model also allows to identify an applicants dilemma: by adopting the acquis potential entrants reduce the probability of admittance to the club.Vor ihrem Eintritt in die Europäische Union müssen die mittel- und osteuropäischen Länder den sog. acquis communautaire, das System der Rechtsregeln, das sich in der EU herausgebildet hat, übernehmen. Dieser Beitrag präsentiert eine Theorie optimaler Rechtsräume, die dazu genutzt wird, die optimale Größe der Union sowie Gewinner und Verlierer der Erweiterung zu bestimmen. Das Modell erlaubt daneben die Identifizierung eines Beitrittskandidaten-Dilemmas: Indem sie den acaquis communautaire übernehmen, reduzieren die Kandidaten die Wahrscheinlichkeit ihrer Aufnahme in die EU

Territoriality of Law and the International Trade Game: Towards a New Institutional Economics of International Transactions

The conventional theory of international trade is dominated by a model presupposing a legal order that is perfect in its specifications and controllability, binding for all economic agents, no matter their nationality. World order appears to be cosmopolitan in the sense of Kant. An international private law community such as this, however, does not exist. In fact, there is a multitude of legal orders and a territoriality of law, leading to problems largely neglected in the traditional theory of international trade. They are at the heart of what we would like to call the New Institutional Economics of International Transactions (NIEIT) – a research program which started from a monograph published in 1990 (see Schmidt-Trenz 1990). This paper addresses two questions: Which specific problems emerge in contracts and the contracting process because of factors such as the multitude of legal orders and the territoriality of law? What solutions are there to these problems a) on the level of the law, and b) in the shadow of the law or completely independent of it (?private ordering?)? How do they work from an efficiency point of view? We restrict attention to the international exchange of goods. However, the insights gained can be transferred to other types of transactions, such as international finance transactions, direct investment, and investment agreements

The Media Order of Political Europe. The Forms and Dynamics of the Europeanization of Political Communication in the Quality Press

Die Erfolgschancen des europäischen Integrationsprozesses als gesellschaftspolitisches Großexperiment sind eng an das Entwicklungspotential einer europäischen politischen Öffentlichkeit geknüpft worden. In der aktuellen Diskussion um das sogenannte Öffentlichkeits- und Kommunikationsdefizit Europas überwiegt allerdings die Skepsis, ob die zögerlichen Ansätze zur Europäisierung politisch-medialer Kommunikation den funktionalen und normativen Anforderungen politischer Öffentlichkeit entsprechen könnten. Ausgehend von der These eines funktionalen Wechselverhältnisses zwischen politischer Herrschaftsausübung und Öffentlichkeit in der EU soll im vorliegenden Beitrag das Ausmaß der Fokussierung gesellschaftlicher Beobachtungspositionen auf die neue normative Zurechungseinheit "Europa" quantitativ und qualitativ erhoben werden. Hierzu liegen die Ergebnisse einer vergleichenden Medieninhaltsanalyse der europapolitischen Nachrichtenberichterstattung des Jahres 2000 in Qualitätszeitungen aus sechs Ländern vor, über die unterschiedliche Grade der Resonanzerzeugung des politischen Europas und ihre Effekte auf die Aushandlung der Legitimität einer europäischen Herrschaftsordnung bestimmt werden können.The achievement of European integration as an experiment in transnational society building is closely linked to the potential of an unfolding European public sphere. However, in the current discussion about the so-called public sphere and the communication deficits of Europe a rather skeptical view prevails. Europeanization of political communication proceeds at a slow rate and it is not clear whether it will be able to meet the functional and normative requirements of the public sphere. This paper starts from the thesis of a functional relationship between the practice of rule and decision-making in the EU and the emergence of a sphere of publics. The extent to which Europe has become the object of public observation and communication will be measured both quantitatively and qualitatively. This research is based on a comparative media analysis of political news coverage about Europe from the year 2000 in quality newspapers in six countries. Through the coding of news articles different degrees of resonance of the European political process can be measured. This will further help us to understand the effects of the unfolding European public sphere for negotiating the legitimacy of a European political order