What is there to legitimize in the European Union... and how might this be accomplished?

'Dieses Papier widmet sich der Problematik des Aufbaus von Legitimität (eines der am häufigst verwendeten und 'mißbrauchten' Konzepte der Politikwissenschaft) im Rahmen von 'governance' (eines der 'modernsten' Konzepte im politischen Diskurs) in der Europäischen Union (eines der neuesten politischen Experimente). Ob absichtlich oder unabsichtlich, die EU hat sehr zur Herstellung dieser Arrangements beigetragen; eine 'Formel' zur ihrer Legitimation fehlt jedoch. In diesem Zusammenhang legt der Autor eine Reihe von Prinzipien vor, die zum Aufbau von Europäischen 'Regierungs-Arrangements' (European Governance Arrangements, EGAs) beitragen könnten. Er schließt mit kritischen Anmerkungen, wobei er u.a. betont, daß EGAs nicht dazu beitragen werden alle Probleme in allen Politikfeldern zu lösen und auch nicht funktionieren werden, wenn sie nicht auf politischen Prinzipien basieren (im Hinblick auf eine eigene Charta, die Zusammensetzung ihrer Mitglieder und in Zusammenhang mit Entscheidungsmechanismen). Rein technokratische oder administrative Überlegungen werden nicht genügen.' (Autorenreferat)'This paper focuses on the problematique of building the legitimacy (one of the most used and misused concepts in Political Science) of governance (one of the most fashionable concepts in contemporary political discourse) within the context of the European Union (one of the most novel of political experiments). Whether intentionally or not, the EU has become a formidable producer of such arrangements, but lacks a 'formula' for their legitimation. The author presents three sets of principles that might be used to guide the design of European Governance Arrangements (EGAs) in order to enhance their legitimacy. He concludes with some caveats, underlining inter alia that EGAs will not resolve all policy issues in the supra-national realm, and they will not work unless firmly based on explicitly political choices involving their charter, the composition of participants and the rules for decision-making. Purely technocratic or administrative considerations will not suffice.' (author's abstract)

Some propositions about civil society and the consolidation of democracy

"»Civil Society« is a concept that has been much discussed in relation to the processes of democratization in Southern Europe, Latin America and, especially, in Eastern Europe. Despite widespread recognition of its potential importance, scholars have not agreed on how to define it, nor are they sure what the specific nature of its contribution can be. This essay, is an attempt to pin down the meaning of civil society and the role that it can play in facilitating the consolidation of democracy. Emphasis is placed on four characteristics of intermediary organizations: their dual autonomy from both the state and primary social units of production and reproduction; their capacity collective action in defense of the interests and passions of their members; their limitation with regard to governing the polity as a whole; and, their willingness to act »civilly«, i.e. within preestablished rules of exchange and influence. After exploring its relationship with social movements and political parties, attention is focused primarily on the emergent properties of individual interest associations and of the systems of interest intermediation they form. Hypothetically, it is suggested that variables such as the number of associations, their density of membership, the breadth of their respective domains and of their coverage of interests/passions, the extent of associational monopoly and the pressure of higher-order coordination mechanisms combine (admitted in a variety of ways) to determine the structural context within which these organizations can serve to link citizens and public authorities. Strategic capacity, encompassingness, class governance and congruence are offered as the key conditions which determine the strength or weakness of civil society. A series of hypotheses are proposed which link (positively and negatively) the relative strength of civil society to success or failure in the effort to consolidate democracy. Furthermore, it is argued that civil society is not an automatic or unreflexive product of capitalism, urbanization, literacy, social mobilization, economic growth – i.e. of development – although it is encouraged by all of the above. Rather, its emergence requires explicit policies by public authorities and implicit practices by private (re)producers. After a brief discussion of what these policies may be, the article concludes with some reflections of the changing international context and on the relevance of civil society in places and cultures far removed from its historic heartland: Western Europe." [author's abstract

As revoltas árabes e a democracia no mundo

Desde Kant que sabemos como a natureza dos regimes importa para a segurança internacional e como os povos “republicanos” tendem a ser mais pacíficos do que aqueles que vivem sob regimes despóticos ou autoritários. Nesse sentido, pode dizer-se que o estudo das mudanças políticas e o acompanhamento da evolução dos regimes nas várias regiões do globo é crucial para a análise das tendências e das ameaças e riscos à segurança nacional, e como tal inserem-se na missão do Instituto da Defesa Nacional (IDN). Foi justamente por isso que o IDN lançou uma linha de investigação sobre este tema e que, no dia 26 de Abril de 2012, organizou um seminário internacional intitulado “As Revoltas Árabes e a Democracia no Mundo”, com painéis sobre transições democráticas, a situação no mundo árabe e a promoção da democracia. O seminário contou com a intervenção de altos funcionários, antigos responsáveis políticos e académicos especializados em processos de democratização e na análise do mundo árabe e do Médio Oriente. Alguns desses oradores deixaram-nos ou enviaram-nos contributos escritos. São precisamente esses contributos que aqui se reúnem

Convergence towards a European strategic culture? A constructivist framework for explaining changing norms.

The article contributes to the debate about the emergence of a European strategic culture to underpin a European Security and Defence Policy. Noting both conceptual and empirical weaknesses in the literature, the article disaggregates the concept of strategic culture and focuses on four types of norms concerning the means and ends for the use of force. The study argues that national strategic cultures are less resistant to change than commonly thought and that they have been subject to three types of learning pressures since 1989: changing threat perceptions, institutional socialization, and mediatized crisis learning. The combined effect of these mechanisms would be a process of convergence with regard to strategic norms prevalent in current EU countries. If the outlined hypotheses can be substantiated by further research the implications for ESDP are positive, especially if the EU acts cautiously in those cases which involve norms that are not yet sufficiently shared across countries

Instances and connectors : issues for a second generation process language

This work is supported by UK EPSRC grants GR/L34433 and GR/L32699Over the past decade a variety of process languages have been defined, used and evaluated. It is now possible to consider second generation languages based on this experience. Rather than develop a second generation wish list this position paper explores two issues: instances and connectors. Instances relate to the relationship between a process model as a description and the, possibly multiple, enacting instances which are created from it. Connectors refers to the issue of concurrency control and achieving a higher level of abstraction in how parts of a model interact. We believe that these issues are key to developing systems which can effectively support business processes, and that they have not received sufficient attention within the process modelling community. Through exploring these issues we also illustrate our approach to designing a second generation process language.Postprin