Department of Political and Social Sciences Syllabus for the Seminar on EU Federalism and Democracy 1st term, Fall 2012 Seminar offered by Prof. Alexander H. Trechsel On September 12 2012, the German Constitutional Court will decide on the constitutionality of Germany s plans to ratify the European Stability Mechanism. A court of a single EU Member State will therefore decide, indirectly, on the future of the Eurozone. One could argue that this is an example of the enormous difficulties the European polity has to face due to its incompletely federalized structures. This summer, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti declared in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel that European governments should be given greater independence from their national parliaments. He said: If governments allow themselves to be entirely bound to the decisions of their parliament, without protecting their own freedom to act, a break up of Europe would be a more probable outcome than deeper integration." This remark sparked a vivid debate in Germany and Italy on the democratic foundations of the European Union. One could argue that this is an example of the enormous difficulties the European polity has to face due to its incompletely democratized structure. Federalism and democracy are two fundamental sets of institutions of numerous political orders. Within the field of EU studies, both topics occupy an ever more central place. In the state of acute crisis that befalls Europe, a better understanding of federalism and democracy becomes indispensable. How federal is the EU really? How democratic is the EU? How harmonious or, to the contrary, antagonistic are the concepts of multi-level governance and multi-level democracy? What are the tensions affecting both representation and more direct forms of democratic participation at the EU level? Through weekly readings, discussions and talks given by specialists we will try to answer these questions using a comparative approach to the phenomena of federalism and democracy in the EU. Participants in the seminar are expected to select one of the topics/concepts and take responsibility for the opening and the structuring of the discussion. Please register with Adele Battistini (adele.battistini@eui.eu) 1
Session 1 - October 2 2012 Introduction Hooghe, Liesbet and Gary Marks. European Union? West European Politics, 31(1-2): 108-129. Session 2 - October 9 2012 Conceptualizing Federalism: Classic Theories Elazar, D. J., 1968. "Federalism" pp. 353-367 in International Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, vol. 5. Riker W. H., 1975. "Federalism" pp. 93-172 in Handbook of Political Science, vol. 5. Lane, Jan-Erik and Svante Ersson, 2000. "Federalism: Althusius" pp. 77-101 in Jan-Erik Lane and Svante Ersson The New Institutional Politics. Performance and Outcomes. London and New York: Routledge. Session 3 - October 16 2012 Conceptualizing Federalism: Modern Theories Bednar, Jenna.2011. The Political Science of Federalism. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 7: 269-288. Stepan, Alfred, 1999. Federalism and Democracy: Beyond the U.S. Model, Journal of Democracy 10, 4: 19-34. Filippov, Mikhail, Ordeshook, Peter C., Shvetsova, Olga, 2004. Designing Federalism. A Theory of Self-Sustainable Federal Institutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Chapter 1). Bednar, Jenna, 2004. Authority Migration in Federations: A Framework for Analysis, PS 37:2. Session 4 - October 23 2012 Federalism and the EU (I) Fabbrini, Sergio, 2010. Revisiting Altiero Spinelli: Why to Look at the European Union through the American Experience in Andrew Glencross and Alexander H. Trechsel (eds.) EU Federalism and Constitutionalism: The Legacy of Altiero Spinelli. Lanham: Lexington Books. 2
Riker W. H., 1996. "European Federalism: The Lessons of Past Experiences" pp. 9-24 in Joachim Jens Hesse and Vincent Wright (eds.) Federalizing Europe? The Costs, Benefits, and Preconditions of Federal Political Systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Donahue, John D. & Pollack, Mark A., 2001. Centralization and its discontents: the Rhythms of Federalism in the United States and the European Union, pp. 73-117 in Nicolaidis, Kalypso and Robert Howse (eds.) The Federal Vision. Legitimacy and Levels of Governance in the United States and the European Union, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Weiler, J. H. H., 2001. Federalism without constitutionalism: Europe s Sonderweg, pp. 54-70 in Nicolaidis, Kalypso and Robert Howse (eds.) The Federal Vision. Legitimacy and Levels of Governance in the United States and the European Union, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Moravcsik, Andrew, 2001. Federalism in the European Union: Rhetoric and Reality, pp. 161-187 in Nicolaidis, Kalypso and Robert Howse (eds.) The Federal Vision. Legitimacy and Levels of Governance in the United States and the European Union, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Session 5 - November 6 2012 Federalism and the EU (II) Kelemen, Daniel, 2003. The Structure and Dynamics of EU Federalism, Comparative Political Studies, 36:1/2, pp. 184-208. McKay, David, 2001. Designing Europe. Comparative Lessons from the Federal Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1-7. McKay, David, 2001. Designing Europe. Comparative Lessons from the Federal Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 8-22. Börzel, Tanja A. Hösli, Madeleine O., 2003. Brussels between Berlin and Bern: Comparative Federalism meets the European Union, Governance 16:2, pp. 179-202. Trechsel, Alexander H. 2005. How to federalize the European Union... and why bother. Journal of European Public Policy 12(3):401-418. Session 6 - November 13 2012 Democracy and the EU (I) Marquand, David, 1979. Parliament for Europe. London: Jonathan Cape, pp. 45-66. Bogdanor, Vernon, 1986. "The Future of the European Community: Two Models of Democracy", Government and Opposition, 21(2), pp.161-176. 3
Majone, Giandomenico, 1998. "Europe's 'Democratic Deficit': The Question of Standards", European Law Journal, 4(1), pp. 5-28. Schmitter, Philippe C., 2000. How to Democratize the European Union...And Why Bother?, Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 1-22. Schmitter, Philippe C., 2000. How to Democratize the European Union...And Why Bother?, Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 115-33. Session 7 - November 20 2012 Democracy and the EU (II) Zweifel, Thomas D., 2002. "...Who is without sin cast the first stone: the EU's democratic deficit in comparison", Journal of European Public Policy, 9(5); pp. 812-840. Moravcsik, Andrew, 2002. "In Defence of the 'Democratic Deficit': Reassessing Legitimacy in the European Union", Journal of Common Market Studies, 40(4): pp. 603-24. Mény, Yves, 2003. "De la démocratie en Europe: Old Concepts and New Challenges", Journal of Common Market Studies, 41(1): pp. 1-13. Schmidt, Vivien A., 2005. "Democracy in Europe: The Impact of European Integration", Perspectives on Politics, 3(4): pp. 761-779. Majone, Giandomenico, 2006. "The common sense of European Integration", Journal of European Public Policy 13(5) 607-626. Follesdal, Andreas and Simon Hix, 2006. Why there is a Democratic Deficit in the European Union. A Response to Majone and Moravcsik", Journal of Common Market Studies 44(3), pp. 533-62. Notre Europe, 2006. Politics: The Right or the Wrong Sort of Medicine for the EU? Two Papers by Simon Hix and Stefano Bartolini". Session 8 - November 27 2012 Current Tensions with Representation, Legitimacy and Accountability Scharpf, Fritz W. 2000. "Democratic legitimacy under conditions of regulatory competition: Why Europe differs from the United States." Juan March Institute Working Paper 2000/145. Bellamy, Richard, 2010. Democracy without democracy? Can the EU's democratic outputs be separated from the democratic inputs provided by competitive parties and majority rule? Journal of European Public Policy, 17(1): 2-19. Mair, Peter and Jacques Thomassen, 2010. Political representation and government in the European Union, Journal of European Public Policy, 17(1): 20-35. 4
Mair, Peter, 2010. The Political Crisis. EUI Review. Autumn 2010: pp. 20-21. Schmidt, Vivien A., 2010. The European Union in search of political identity and legitimacy: Is more Politics the Answer? Vienna: eif Working Paper 05/2010. Session 9 - December 4 2012 Current Tensions with Participation Binzer Hobolt, Sara. 2006. Direct Democracy and European Integration. Journal of European Public Policy 13(1):153-66. Glencross, Andrew and Alexander H. Trechsel, 2011. First or Second Order Referendums? Understanding the Votes on the EU Constitutional Treaty in Four EU Member States, West European Politics. 34(4), pp. 121-145. Papadopoulos, Yannis, 2005. Implementing (and radicalising) art. 47.4 of the Constitution: is the addition of some (semi-) direct democracy to the nascent consociational European federation just Swiss folklore?, Journal of European Public Policy, 12:3: 448-467. Pateman, Carol, 2012. Participatory Democracy Revisited. Perspectives on Politics, 10, 1: 7-19. Session 10 - December 11 2012 Conclusions De Witte, Bruno, 2011. "The Question of Treaty Architecture". From the 'Spinelli Draft' to the Lisbon Treaty" in Andrew Glencross and Alexander H. Trechsel (eds.) EU Federalism and Constitutionalism: The Legacy of Altiero Spinelli. Lanham: Lexington Books. Piris, Jean-Claude, 2012. The Future of Europe. Towards a Two-Speed EU? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 5