Developing a European public sphere

The experimentalist approach assessed

ARENA Report 04/07 by Guri Rosén explores the development of a European public sphere, taking on the argument that without some form of a common public sphere, it will be difficult for Europeans to develop the collective opinion necessary to foster democracy

ARENA Report 04/2007

Guri Rosén

Democracy in the European Union (EU) was placed on the agenda in the wake of the Maastricht Treaty. This thesis sets out to explore the development of a European public sphere, taking on the argument that without some form of a common public sphere, it will be difficult for Europeans to develop the collective opinion necessary to foster democracy. While the public sphere emerged within the context of the nation state, it is a matter of continuous debate whether the EU will be able to develop a similar set of institutions. How do aspects of the EU’s institutional conditions contribute to the development of a European public sphere?

The assumption that the EU is a system characterised by “governance without government” has fostered its own research agenda, and among contributions is the study of new modes of governance. Although such methods may be regarded as counterproductive to the constitution of a public sphere, they have been awarded democratic potential by advocates of ‘democratic experimentalism’, placing emphasis on the development of a multitude of organisationally dispersed public spheres. In this thesis, I use the experimentalist model to explore how aspects of the EU’s institutional conditions contribute to the development of a European public sphere.

ARENA Report 04/2007 (pdf)

ISBN 978-82-93137-53-5 (online) 978-82-93137-03-0 (print)

Published Apr. 25, 2016 1:03 PM - Last modified Apr. 26, 2016 9:08 AM