Working Papers 2011
ARENA working papers are pre-prints of research articles and chapters analysing and documenting new European orders of governance.
On Bureaucratic Centre Formation. Lessons from the European Commission
The article illustrates that despite recent Commission reforms, some core behavioural logics among Commission officials are not profoundly transformed.
From Citizens' Deliberation to Popular Will Formation. Generating Democratic Legitimacy Through Transnational Deliberative Polling
In this article, we critically discuss the issues of discursive quality and democratic legitimacy in deliberative experiments taking place in a transnational and pluri-lingual setting.
The State's Existence between Facts and Norms. A Reflection on some Problems to the Analysis of the State
How can we decide if a political order is a state or not? This paper discusses the ontological quality of the state and what follows from that to its analysis.
Parliament Staff. Background, career patterns and behaviour
This study, based on an online survey, shows that political group staff in the European parliament are primarily committed to the concerns of their respective political groups, but also to the arguments of those external actors which have similar party affiliation.
Deliberation under conditions of language pluralism. Insight from the Europolis Deliberative Polling Experiment
In this paper, the authors confront some commonly held assumptions and objections with regard to the feasibility of deliberation in a transnational and plurilingual setting. To illustrate their argument, they rely on a solid set of both quantitative and qualitative data from Europolis, a transnational deliberative experiment that took place one week ahead of the 2009 European Parliamentary elections.
The Dynamics of Legitimation. Why the study of political legitimacy needs more realism
The paper suggests a practice turn in the analysis of political legitimacy. Current social science research on political legitimacy suffers twofold.
A “Virtual Third Chamber” for the European Union? National parliaments after the Treaty of Lisbon
This working paper sets out to investigate whether the national parliaments, after the Treaty of Lisbon and the introduction of the early warning mechanism, have become a collective actor constituting a "virtual third chamber" at the EU level.
The OECD Civil Servant. Between Scylla and Charybdis
This study reveals a fundamental ‘misfit’ between external demands and internal dynamics in the OECD secretariat.
Representation through deliberation. The European case
This paper shows that the main pattern of European democratisation has unfolded along the lines of an EU organised as a multilevel system of representative parliamentary government and not as a system of deliberative governance as the transnationalists propound.
European Citizenship. With a nation-state, federal, or cosmopolitan twist?
European citizenship poses a theoretical challenge to the paradigmatic understanding of citizenship as congruence between nation, state, and membership rights. This challenge is addressed in this paper by focusing on ideal typical models of the EU polity. Is EU citizenship more nation-based, federal, or cosmopolitan?
Nationalism, Patriotism and Diversity. Conseptualising the national dimension in Neil MacCormick's post-sovereign constellation
This paper scrutinises MacCormick’s liberal nationalism. It is argued that a cosmopolitan constitutional patriotism might be a more suitable mode of allegiance for the post-sovereign constellation.
United They Diverge? From conflicts of law to constitutional theory? On Christian Joerges’ theory
This working paper offers a reconstruction and critical analysis of Joerges’ conflicts theory of European Union law.
From Constitutional Pluralism to a Pluralistic Constitution? Constitutional synthesis as a MacCormickian constitutional theory of European integration
This paper aims at putting forward the key elements of a constitutional theory of European law on the basis of D. Neil MacCormick’s theory of European constitutional pluralism.