The new issue of “European Integration online Papers (EloP)“ is now available online.

Multidimensionality of EU attitudes in France

To be submitted soon as part of the special mini-issue, ‘Beyond Euro-skepticism: Understanding attitudes towards the EU’ in European Integration online Papers. Please check back in Mid-March.

Trust in the institutions of the European Union: A cross-country examination

Trust in political institutions is one of the key elements which make representative democracies work. Trust creates a connection between citizens and representative political institutions. Democratic governments which enjoy a large degree of trust also tend to have higher degrees of legitimacy and policy efficacy. In Europe’s multi-level governance structure, it is imperative to understand the determinants of trust in the institutions of the European Union. With the increasing salience of the European Union, are domestic proxies still a key determinant of evaluating its institutions? Are there differences across the institutions and across the member states? We demonstrate that country-level corruption levels are what drives the relationship between domestic and European institutional trust. The majority of the variation in trust in the institutions of the European Union is, however, driven by individual-level predictors. We also find that individuals across Europe evaluate the institutions of the European Union through a single attitude dimension of political trust rather than through separate evaluations.

Support for Europe: Assessing the complexity of individual attitudes

Recent scholarly work has underlined the importance of being cautious about the notion of Euro-skepticism by putting stress on alternative concepts and measures. This theoretical and empirical contribution has enriched the debate on support for Europe and its potential multidimensionality. However, the fit between theoretical conceptualization and measured attitudes is still under-investigated. Do European citizens actually express different types of support? To what extent are these attitudes structured as we think? This paper investigates the different dimensions that individuals associate with “support for Europe” and whether it varies across national context. We test the empirical validity of three conceptualizations of support for Europe: (a) diffuse versus specific support, (b) identity versus diffuse support, (c) static versus dynamic perception of the European Union. To investigate these patterns, we relied on survey data from Eurobarometer. Methodologically, we use item-response theory modelling. This paper demonstrates that attitudes towards Europe are structured but in a less fine-grained manner than hypothesized in the literature. The distinction between diffuse and specific support is robust at the European scale as well as within each national context. Consequently, we provide an empirical tool to comparatively measure support in all member states. However it is not the case for the other dimensions of support, especially identity, and we advocate caution in using this variable as an explanatory variable.

A new issue of  the Journal of Contemporary History is now available and contains the following articles:

Eugene Kulischer, Joseph Schechtman and the Historiography of European Forced Migrations by Antonio Ferrara

This article deals with two prominent figures in the historiography of twentieth-century European forced migrations: Eugene Kulischer and Joseph Schechtman. Their studies, although published between 1946 and 1962, are still among the standard works on the subject and are as yet unsurpassed in their scope and breadth of outlook, despite the flurry of new publications on the subject after the opening of East Central European archives after 1989. In this article I strive to explain how and why they were able to accomplish such a scholarly feat, paying special attention to their biographies which I have tried to reconstruct, using, for the first time, not only their own writings but also personal testimonies from their students and disparate archival sources located in the United States and Israel. I also discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their works by comparing them with more recent works on the same subject. This is, to my knowledge, the first attempt to reconstruct on the basis of archival evidence the lives and works of the two most important historians of a phenomenon whose impact on the overall history of Europe (and especially of its East Central part) is now generally recognized.

Reframing the Interwar Peace Movement: The Curious Case of Albert Einstein by Ofer Ashkenazi

The diversity of transnational interrelations within the peace movement has been commonly overlooked in studies on the anti-war struggle in the interwar years. Consequently, these studies have often provided an over-simplified view of the formation of anti-war ideologies, worldviews, and objectives. Contrary to this tendency, this article examines Albert Einstein’s engagement with the peace movement in a way that emphasizes its transnational facets. Associating Einstein’s worldview with ideas that were prevalent in transnational organizations in the decade preceding the second world war, it explains the scientist’s propensity to endorse seemingly incompatible ideas as inherent to the nature of these organizations. Focusing on his relationships with two apparently contradictory organizations – the War Resisters’ International and The New Commonwealth Society – I argue that Einstein’s views reflect a set of principles that were held by many supporters of both organizations. Mainly, these principles constituted a revision of nineteenth-century liberal thought which sought to marginalize the impact of nationalist sentiments, redefine the social responsibilities of the state, and restrict its sovereignty. Thus, shifting the emphasis to the transnational aspects of the peace movement would not only make sense of Einstein’s ‘confused’ politics, but also shed new light on interwar pacifism, its objectives, popularity, and enduring influence.

H.M. Hyndman and the Russia Question after 1917 by Markku Ruotsila

In the last four years of his life the eclectic veteran of British Marxism, H.M. Hyndman (1842–1921), was intimately involved in a transatlantic socialist effort to destroy the Russian Bolshevik regime. Historians have rarely investigated this effort, because it appears not to fit into the customary categories constructed about Marxian socialism. Utilizing Hyndman’s extensive published writings and hitherto mostly ignored private correspondence with his many American socialist collaborators, this article reconstructs Hyndman’s thinking on Russia after 1917 in an attempt to shed further light on our understanding of socialist anti-Bolshevism in Britain and in the United States. It argues that Hyndman was a much more influential figure in the construction of socialist anticommunism in the English-speaking world (in particular in the United States) than has been generally recognized. His writings and activities in 1917–21 were key not only in setting the ideological bases for much of the English-speaking world’s socialist anticommunism but in pioneering the abiding, considered willingness by a significant section of its adherents to use military force to destroy the Soviet regime before and during the Cold War.

Foreign Involvement and Loss of Democracy, Estonia 1934 by Jaak Valge

Estonia, where influential major powers have often had competing interests, is able to provide a specific example of how involvement from foreign countries can influence the collapse of democracy. Both the undemocratic Soviet Union, with 150 times the population of Estonia, and 60 times more populous Germany, which had become undemocratic in 1933, were seen in Estonia as security risks. In contrast to this, the democratic United Kingdom was seen as Estonia’s best friend. The United Kingdom and Germany were also Estonia’s main trading partners. But London was primarily concerned to limit the influence of Germany in the Baltic States, and Estonia’s internal situation was of interest in this context. The co-operation by Estonian socialists with Moscow undoubtedly aggravated the Estonian domestic political situation, but the initiators of this co-operation were more the Estonian socialists themselves. Germany’s attempts to influence Estonian domestic politics were of a limited nature. But there is no doubt that events in Germany had a major influence on Estonia’s domestic politics.

 

 

The new issue of “European Integration online Papers (EloP)“ is now available online.

EU Law as Janus bifrons, a sociological approach to “Social Europe”

On the basis of sociological research focused on actions and appreciations of “social policy” actors, this paper contends that, apart from the powerful constraint of macroeconomic governance, the main governance instrument has been hard law, even in an area where member states are deemed to have retained most of their jurisdiction (Leibfried and Pierson, 1995, Ferrera, 2005; Barbier, 2008). The sociological material is systematically cross-checked with legal literature and with material drawn from 26 EU law specialists. The authors focus on the relationship between EU law and “social law” (social protection, labour law and social services). The main finding is the confirmation of the jeopardization of systems of social protection in the “old member states”. On the other hand, though, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Commission have been able to display continual advances on the subject of “fundamental rights”, thus producing key sources of legitimacy among various actors. With the classically documented support of big business and corporations, and the active support of non-governmental organizations in favour of expanding individual fundamental rights, the on-going dynamics of EU law seems to inexorably lead to the demise of the late 19th century born systems of social protection, as F. Scharpf argues. This deterministic analysis however does not take into account the current uncertainties about the role of actors

Deconstructing EU old age policy: Assessing the potential of soft OMCs and hard EU law

When it comes to EU old age policy, the political science literature primarily focuses on soft governance through the OMC (Open Method of Coordination) on social inclusion, pensions and health care. However, a mapping of EU old age policy instruments shows that developments started earlier and are broader and more influential. Employing a policy analysis perspective, I explore problem perceptions and actor constellations to explain the development of a number of directly or indirectly relevant policy instruments and discuss their (potential) effects. On this basis, I show that the governance capacity of soft steering instruments that seek to trigger reforms in the area of pensions is typically overvalued. In contrast, we tend to underestimate how much the EU shapes national room to manoeuvre on ageing and old age security through legislative instruments establishing individual rights for equal treatment or through the free movement of capital and persons. What is more, tracing when and how a range of instruments developed brings to the fore a number of different actors and arenas, interest constellations and conflict lines. Thus, contrasting with the OMCs, the present analysis provides for an understanding of EU governance as a complex, at times contradictory and inherently political process.

European social dialogue as multi-level governance: Towards more autonomy and new dependencies

EU governance and social services of general interest: When even the UK is concerned

The level of autonomy afforded to Member States to define certain services as ‘services of general interest’ and to shelter them from the market so as to promote social objectives has become in recent years a highly sensitive topic among EU and national policy actors and organisations. The increased activity in this area of the European Commission and the general absence of guidance on the conditions necessary to render such services of general interest by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) have resulted in uncertainty concerning the interaction of EU law with social services and more generally public services in the EU Member States. By focusing on the EU regulation on social services of general interest, the paper evaluates how the nature and provision of such services in the UK has been susceptible to changes as a result of the Services Directives, EU public procurement and competition law. The implementation of liberalisation plans in the UK well before any EU initiatives in this area meant that such services have been open to market forces well before other Member States. However, this has not led to the absence of concerns regarding the precise impact of EU law in this area. Recent policy initiatives by the Coalition government may expand further the degree of marketisation and increase the scope for interaction between EU and national-level regulation.