Transformations of the State Series Editors: Achim Hurrelmann, Carleton University, Canada; Stephan Leibfried, University of Bremen, Germany; Kerstin Martens, University of Bremen, Germany; Peter Mayer, University of Bremen, Germany Titles include: Dominika Biegoń HEGEMONIES OF LEGITIMATION Discourse Dynamics in the European Commission Joan DeBardeleben and Achim Hurrelmann (editors) DEMOCRATIC DILEMMAS OF MULTILEVEL GOVERNANCE Legitimacy, Representation and Accountability in the European Union Karin Gottschall, Bernhard Kittel, Kendra Briken, Jan-Ocko Heuer and Sylvia Hils PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYMENT REGIMES Transformations of the State as an Employer Andreas Hepp, Monika Elsler, Swantje Lingenberg, Anne Mollen and Johanna Möller THE COMMUNICATIVE CONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE Cultures of Political Discourse, Public Sphere, and the Euro Crisis Achim Hurrelmann and Steffen Schneider (editors) THE LEGITIMACY OF REGIONAL INTEGRATION IN EUROPE AND AMERICA Achim Hurrelmann, Steffen Schneider and Jens Steffek (editors) LEGITIMACY IN AN AGE OF GLOBAL POLITICS Achim Hurrelmann, Stephan Leibfried, Kerstin Martens and Peter Mayer (editors) TRANSFORMING THE GOLDEN-AGE NATION STATE Lutz Leisering (editor) THE NEW REGULATORY STATE Regulating Pensions in Germany and the UK Kerstin Martens, Alessandra Rusconi and Kathrin Leuze (editors) NEW ARENAS OF EDUCATION GOVERNANCE The Impact of International Organizations and Markets on Educational Policy Making Kerstin Martens, Philipp Knodel and Michael Windzio (editors) INTERNATIONALIZATION OF EDUCATION POLICY A New Constellation of Statehood in Education? Kerstin Martens, Alexander-Kenneth Nagel, Michael Windzio and Ansgar Weymann (editors) TRANSFORMATION OF EDUCATION POLICY Steffen Mau, Heike Brabandt, Lena Laube and Christof Roos LIBERAL STATES AND THE FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT Selective Borders, Unequal Mobility Aletta Mondré FORUM SHOPPING IN INTERNATIONAL DISPUTES Christof Roos THE EU AND IMMIGRATION POLICIES Cracks in the Walls of Fortress Europe? Heinz Rothgang and Steffen Schneider STATE TRANSFORMATIONS IN OECD COUNTRIES Dimensions, Driving Forces, and Trajectories
Heinz Rothgang, Mirella Cacace, Simone Grimmeisen, Uwe Helmert and Claus Wendt THE STATE AND HEALTHCARE Comparing OECD Countries Steffen Schneider, Achim Hurrelmann, Zuzana Krell-Laluhová, Frank Nullmeier and Achim Wiesner DEMOCRACY S DEEP ROOTS Why the Nation State Remains Legitimate Peter Starke RADICAL WELFARE STATE RETRENCHMENT A Comparative Analysis Peter Starke, Alexandra Kaasch and Franca Van Hooren (editors) THE WELFARE STATE AS CRISIS MANAGER Explaining the Diversity of Policy Responses to Economic Crisis Silke Weinlich THE UN SECRETARIAT S INFLUENCE ON THE EVOLUTION OF PEACEKEEPING Hartmut Wessler (editor) PUBLIC DELIBERATION AND PUBLIC CULTURE The Writings of Bernhard Peters, 1993 2005 Hartmut Wessler, Bernhard Peters, Michael Brűggemann, Katharina Kleinen-von Kőnigslőw and Stefanie Sifft TRANSNATIONALIZATION OF PUBLIC SPHERES Jochen Zimmermann and Jörg R. Werner REGULATING CAPITALISM? The Evolution of Transnational Accounting Governance Jochen Zimmerman, Jörg R. Werner and Philipp B. Volmer GLOBAL GOVERNANCE IN ACCOUNTING Public Power and Private Commitment Transformations of the State Series Standing Order ISBN 978 1 4039 8544 6 (hardback) 978 1 4039 8545 3 (paperback) (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBNs quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
Hegemonies of Legitimation Discourse Dynamics in the European Commission Dominika Biegoń Parliamentary Assistant, European Parliament, Belgium
HEGEMONIES OF LEGITIMATION.DISCOURSE DYNAMICS IN THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION Copyright Dominika Biegoń 2016 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission. In accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 2016 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of Nature America, Inc., One New York Plaza, Suite 4500, New York, NY 10004-1562. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. ISBN: 978 1 137 57049 9 E-PDF ISBN: 978 1 137 57050 5 DOI: 10.1057/9781137570505 Distribution in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record for the book is available from the British Library.
Contents List of Figures and Tables Series Preface Acknowledgements vi vii ix 1 Introduction: Legitimacy as a Discursive Battleground in the European Commission 1 2 Discourse Dynamics 29 3 Reconstructing Meanings of a Legitimate EC/EU: Discursive Metaphor Analysis 59 4 Change and Continuity of Legitimacy Discourses in the European Commission between 1973 and 2013 94 5 The Failed Hegemonic Project: The Identity Discourse in the 1980s 141 6 Democracy as a Successful Hegemonic Project in the 1990s 169 7 Conclusion: Towards an Alternative Horizon Democracy and Dispute 195 Bibliography 203 Index 228 v
Figures and Tables Figures 2.1 Temporally fixed hegemonic discourse 49 2.2 Antagonistic counter-hegemonic operation 55 2.3 Heterogeneous counter-hegemonic operation 1 56 2.4 Heterogeneous counter-hegemonic operation 2 58 4.1 Number of analysed legitimacy-relevant documents per year 96 4.2 Development of legitimacy discourses (1973 2013) (%) 102 5.1 Chain of equivalence of the identity discourse 149 5.2 Structure of the people s Europe discourse 159 6.1 Break-up of the people s Europe discourse 177 6.2 Chain of equivalence of the democracy discourse, early 1990s 179 6.3 Structure of the political union discourse 186 Tables 1.1 Models of legitimacy 16 3.1 Theories of metaphors 75 4.1 Change of expression in the democracy discourse: Overview 133 4.2 Legitimacy discourses, source domains and stylized metaphorical expressions 138 vi
Series Preface Over the past four centuries, the nation state has emerged as the world s most effective means of organizing society, but its current status and future are decidedly uncertain. Some scholars predict the total demise of the nation state as we know it, its powers eroded by a dynamic global economy on the one hand and, on the other, by the transfer of political decision-making to supranational bodies. Other analysts point out the remarkable resilience of the state s core institutions and assert that even in the age of global markets and politics, the state remains the ultimate guarantor of security, democracy, welfare and the rule of law. Does either of these interpretations describe the future of the OECD world s modern, liberal nation state? Will the state soon be as obsolete and irrelevant as an outdated computer? Should it be scrapped for some new invention, or can it be overhauled and rejuvenated? Or is the state actually thriving and still fit to serve, just in need of a few minor reforms? In an attempt to address these questions, the analyses in the Transformations of the State series separate the complex tangle of tasks and functions that comprise the state into four manageable dimensions: the monopolization of the means of force; the rule of law, as prescribed and safeguarded by the constitution; the guarantee of democratic self-governance; and the provision of welfare and the assurance of social cohesion. In the OECD world of the 1960s and 1970s, these four dimensions formed a synergetic constellation that emerged as the central, defining characteristic of the modern state. Books in the series report the results of both empirical and theoretical studies of the transformations experienced in each of these dimensions over the past few decades. Transformations of the State? (Stephan Leibfried and Michael Zürn (eds), Cambridge 2005), Transforming the Golden-Age National State (Achim Hurrelmann, Stephan Leibfried, Kerstin Martens and Peter Mayer (eds), Basingstoke 2007), State Transformations in OECD Countries: Dimensions, Driving Forces and Trajectories (Heinz Rothgang and Steffen Schneider (eds), Basingstoke 2015) and The Oxford Handbook of vii
viii Series Preface Transformations of the State (Stephan Leibfried, Evelyne Huber, Matthew Lange, Jonah Levy and Frank Nullmeier (eds), Oxford 2015) define the basic concepts of state transformation employed in all of these studies and provide an overview of the issues addressed. Written by political scientists, lawyers, economists and sociologists, the series tracks the development of the post-world War II OECD state. Here, at last, is an up-to-date series of reports on the state of the state and a crystal-ball glimpse into its future.
Acknowledgements Writing a book is both an extremely strenuous and satisfying activity. I have been very fortunate to find myself in a remarkably supportive professional environment and social network that have accompanied the ups and downs of the research process over the last six years. This book was written in the context of a research project taking place at the Collaborative Research Centre 597 Transformations of the State at the University of Bremen. The study benefited greatly from my affiliation to the Bremen Graduate School of Social Sciences. Both institutions provided a suitable setting and conducive conditions for the intellectual encounters necessary to do research. I want to thank my two mentors Frank Nullmeier and Thomas Diez for their scholarly input. Frank Nullmeier, who has always carefully read my drafts, taught me the need for rigour as well as textual and conceptual care. Similarly, Thomas Diez, who, despite being located in Tübingen, managed to provide me with long-distance inspiration and encouragement to set high targets. Moreover, many colleagues from the University of Bremen devoted valuable time to discussing my thoughts. I am particularly grateful to Thorsten Hüller, who, rather sceptical of discourse analytical work, constantly pushed me to hone my arguments, and to Martin Nonhoff, who helped me out of theoretical and methodological impasses. Furthermore, the regular meetings of my discourse theoretical discussion group consisting of Linda Monsees and Frank A. Stengel were of immense value for me. Their friendly criticism and constructive comments prepared me well for the presentation of my work in broader academic circles. What is more, our shared interest in the power of discourses generated a close-knit community feeling in a rather sceptical academic environment. Bits and pieces of various versions of this manuscript have been discussed before many audiences at different conferences and workshops. I would at least like to mention the name of those whose contributions were particularly helpful for me in different phases of the research process. Thanks go to Richard Bellamy, Anna Geis, Jennifer Gronau, Lene Hansen, Eva Herschinger, Cathleen Kantner, Brigitte Kerchner, Beate Kohler-Koch, Sandra Kröger, Ulrike Liebert, Heiko Pleines, Henning Schmidtke and Arndt Wonka. ix
x Acknowledgements In addition, I am grateful to the plan m group of women who provided me with emotional and ideological support. Seeing all of you handing in your works over the years proved to me that there is a life after a PhD and it was an incentive for me to write up my own study. I am also indebted to Deborah Fölsche-Forrow, who has helped me to polish the edges of some English expressions here and there. I acknowledge the funding of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the University of Bremen, which has made this research possible. On a more personal level, I am thankful to my parents Mirosław and Stanisława Biegoń and to my brother Patrick Biegoń for their constant and loving support. Special thanks go to Aline le Claire, my oldest friend, who has always encouraged me to pursue my path. I discussed my project ideas with her and we had long debates about the relevance of science in general. Last but certainly not least, I am grateful to my son, Jarek Krowinn and my husband, Quint Krowinn, both of whom made me recurrently aware of the joys of everyday life. With their support, I was able to get through the more strenuous phases of writing this book. Quint believed in me and in my project long before I ever began to. Over the years, he has been my most critical and most supportive reader: I dedicate this book to him.