RECON Online Working Paper 2009/04
The 'Referendum Threat', the Rationally Ignorant Voter, and the Political Culture of the EU
Giandomenico Majone

Abstract: The public attitude to European integration in terms of a 'permissive consensus' has come to an end, but EU leaders do not seem to be sufficiently aware of the far-reaching consequences entailed by this change in public attitude. Influenced by a peculiar political culture, they perceive popular referendums as an unconscionable risk for the integration process. Giandomenico Majone claims that the fear of an EU 'without border and limits' and the loss of confidence among significant parts of the electorate in the EU's ability to deal with everyday issues indicate that the EU may be entering an 'age of diminished expectations', in which some form of differentiated integration may offer the only possibility of avoiding the dilemma of dissolution or irrelevance.


RECON Online Working Paper 2009/06
Regional Federalisation with a Cosmopolitan Intent
Kjartan Koch Mikalsen

Abstract: This paper deals with the issue of institutionalising a legal pacifistic international order. While Kant's idea of perpetual peace serves as the point of departure, Kjartan Koch Mikalsen argues that in order to find a proper institutional arrangement one would have to look beyond the two notions found in Kant: the voluntary federation and the world state.


RECON Online Working Paper 2009/05
European citizenship after Martínez Sala and Baumbast: Has European law become more human but less social?
Agustín José Menéndez

Abstract: Martínez Sala and Baumbast have become the leading cases on free movement of persons in Community law, which are typically seen as indicating a 'civic' turn of European integration. Agustín José Menéndez in this paper claims that the two cases are not epochal judgments, but logical extensions of the pre-Maastricht case of the Court, radicalising the processes of Europeanisation. In turn, however, European law has become more humane but less social.


RECON Online Working Paper 2009/03
On Political Representation: Myths and Challenges
Johannes Pollak, Jozef Bátora, Monika Mokre, Emmanuel Sigalas and Peter Slominski

Abstract: In this paper, the authors critically reassess the standard account of political representation, claiming that it can no longer serve as an adequate explanatory framework in the modern political context. The consolidation of the EU as a supranational political arena and the burgeoning activity of transnational actors have resulted in a multiplication of structures and opportunities for political representation, which seriously challenges the effectiveness and suitability of this model.


RECON Online Working Paper 2009/02
In Search of Popular Subjectness: Identity Formation, Constitution-Making and the Democratic Consolidation of the EU
Hans-Jörg Trenz
Abstract: This paper addresses the critical issue of how constitutional designing of the EU is related to the expression of collective identities. A European collective identity is perceived in terms of the discursive representation of the underlying demos of a European democracy. By drawing on a comparative media survey of constitutional debates from 2002-2007, Hans-Jörg Trenz tests out to what extent public debates on EU constitution-making were linked to the identification of popular subjectness.

RECON Online Working Paper 2009/01

Reasserting the Nation State: The Trajectory of Euroscepticism in the Netherlands 1992-2005
Pieter de Wilde
Abstract: This paper provides a longitudinal comparative case study of Dutch debates on the EU budget between 1992 and 2005. Pieter de Wilde's study leads to a conceptualization of how the permissive consensus in the Netherlands changed towards Euroscepticism through a process of politicization in which the issue was internalized, followed by calls for renationalization.

The RECON Online Working Paper Series is available at:
http://www.reconproject.eu/projectweb/portalproject/RECONWorkingPapers.html