Quasi-Messianism and the disenchantment of politics

The study of political religion has focused on how religious structure and substance came to permeate grand political ideologies such as fascism and communism. The relevance of various relatively veiled forms of religion in modern day-to-day democratic politics has been undervalued and we therefore fail to appreciate to what extent, and how religious structure and substance have also penetrated conventional democratic politics. As a result, we do not comprehend that it is the progressive abolition of "quasi-messianism" in politics that is currently causing the existential problem of democracy, namely massive political disaffection. Quasi-messianism concerned the visionary anticipation of a better world that is attainable, here and in the distant, yet foreseeable future. This promise accorded politics an enchanting quality. Quite down-to-earth political ventures got charged with an inspiring and imaginative sense of purpose, direction, and meaning, but equally with this-worldly catalysts, which, in contrast to the political-religious grand utopias, were operational and practical. In this quality, some mass political projects or elite missions developed a capacity to enchant the political elite and the public alike. Hence the thesis that it is the disenchantment of politics, which lies at the heart of the contemporary phenomenon of waning political allegiance. Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2009

The politics of international norms: Subsidiarity and the imperfect competence regime of the Europenean Union

Contains fulltext : 159968.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Theories on the role of norms in international relations generally neglect the possibility that after their adoption a new battle over their precise meaning ensues, especially when a norm remains vague and illusive. Norm implementation is not only a matter of internalization and compliance, but also of redefinition. Building on insights from rationalist and constructivist approaches, this article advances the idea of recurrent battles for and over norms in international politics. It argues that the analytical tools of international regime theory are instrumental in tracking such battles. This framework is applied to the history and role of subsidiarity as a norm in the competence regime of the European Union between 1991 and 2005. Its main finding is that the issue of subsidiarity was not a matter of norm internalization, but concerned a recurrent battle between old and newly empowered actors over its precise meaning, eventually favouring the member states' prerogative.22 p

Welfare state reform and political allegiance

Contains fulltext : 173919.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access

Interests, Identity and Political Allegiance in the European Union

In this paper, we take up a question, which has a longstanding tradition within the field of European Union (EU) studies: What explains the variation in public support for European integration and/or the European Union? There are two dominant explanations of EU support: the utilitarian self-interest and the national identity perspectives. The former viewpoint stresses that citizens are more likely to support integration, if it results in a net benefit to the national economy or their own pocketbook. The latter perspective highlights the importance of feelings of national identity in shaping support for European integration. Drawing on the concept of (double) allegiance, we argue that there are theoretical reasons to combine the interest- and identity-based perspectives into one single explanatory framework. Support for supra-national institutions depends on the extent to which such institutions allow national political elites to provide security and well-being. The more citizens perceive that integration threatens their (economic, social-psychological and/or socio-economic) security and well-being, the less they are likely to support the EU. We find empirical evidence that interest- and identity-based explanations should indeed not be seen as alternative explanations, but as perspective that capture different sides of the same coin.Session 1: Governance in the European Unio

The Politics of Welfare State Reform

Contains fulltext : 178395.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)This article presents and discusses the state of the art in political science research on welfare state reform. While scholars first aimed at explaining the emergence and growth of the welfare state, national variation in its development, and crises of welfare state regimes, more recently the focus has shifted to the persistence and reform of the major welfare state institutions. Research in this direction has typically adopted an institutionalist perspective, stressing how institutional settings affect the feasibility and direction of reforms. These studies have shed light on important aspects of the question, in particular by demonstrating the role of path dependency and veto players in reform processes, but suffer from two main problems, namely the difficulty of defining the dependent variable in an appropriate way, and the neglect of the importance of power resources

Nationale politieke stelsels : over de verschuivende grenzen van de politiek en de politicologie

Contains fulltext : 18865_natipost.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)32 p