Power, norms and institutional change in the European Union: the protection of the free movement of goods

How do institutions of the European Union change? Using an institutionalist approach, this article highlights the interplay between power, cognitive limits, and the normative order that underpins institutional settings and assesses their impact upon the process of institutional change. Empirical evidence from recent attempts to reinforce the protection of the free movement of goods in the EU suggests that, under conditions of uncertainty, actors with ambiguous preferences assess attempts at institutional change on the basis of the historically defined normative order which holds a given institutional structure together. Hence, path dependent and incremental change occurs even when more ambitious and functionally superior proposals are on offer

The future of sovereignty in multilevel governance Europe: a constructivist reading

Multilevel governance presents a depiction of contemporary structures in EU Europe as consisting of overlapping authorities and competing competencies. By focusing on emerging non-anarchical structures in the international system, hence moving beyond the conventional hierarchy/anarchy dichotomy to distinguish domestic and international arenas, this seems a radical transformation of the familiar Westphalian system and to undermine state sovereignty. Paradoxically, however, the principle of sovereignty proves to be resilient despite its alleged empirical decline. This article argues that social constructivism can explain the paradox, by considering sovereign statehood as a process-dependent institutional fact, and by showing that multilevel governance can feed into this process

Civil society and global governance : the possibilities for global citizenship

In this article we reassert the role of governance as well as of civil society in the analysis of citizenship. We argue that to analyse global civil society and global citizenship it is necessary to focus on global governance. Just as states may facilitate or obstruct the emergence and development of national civil society, so too global governance institutions may facilitate or obstruct an emerging global civil society. Our key contention is that civil society at the global level thrives through its interaction with strong facilitating institutions of global governance. We start with a discussion of civil society and citizenship within the nation-state, and from there develop a model of global civil society and citizenship. Through analysing the impacts of various modes of global governance, we identify strategically appropriate forms of political and social engagement that best advance the prospects for global citizenship. <br /

O baile do monstro: o mito da paz de vestfália na história das relações internacionais modernas

O objetivo deste artigo é problematizar o mito da Paz de Vestfália nas relações internacionais modernas, trazendo interpretações alternativas para tal evento e para seus impactos no estudo da história das relações internacionais e nas relações internacionais contemporâneas. Problematizando, primeiramente o marco histórico, o argumento central aponta que a Paz de Vestfália não promoveu profunda inovação nem ruptura em relação à perspectiva anterior à Guerra dos Trinta Anos no que diz respeito aos aspectos essenciais das unidades constitutivas do Sacro Império Romano e das prerrogativas do imperador, apenas confirmou uma ordem cooperativa legal de entidades autônomas não-soberanas. O questionamento da existência empírica de um sistema inviolável de Estados soberanos evidencia, a seguir, as brechas nos princípios de autonomia e de territorialidade do modelo vestfaliano de relações internacionais. Finalmente, as interpretações alternativas do impacto da Paz de Vestfália para as relações internacionais e para seu estudo indicam que a igualdade formal entre os Estados intensifica dificuldades na resposta às diferenças na cultura, na religião e no modo de vida