The national politics of EU enlargement in the Western Balkans

Abstract

European enlargement has often been viewed from an institutional perspective. The academic literature in the field has tended to focus primarily on how the Commission or the Council has addressed the issue of EU expansion. Relatively little attention has been paid to the role of individual member states. This article considers the way in which domestic political concerns and national politics affects the way in which EU members approach enlargement to the Western Balkans. It does this by examining studies conducted on seven countries: Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Hungary, Greece and Cyprus. It shows that there are in fact a wide variety of factors that shape individual member state attitudes towards enlargement. These factors include economic and commercial goals, ties to the region and to individual accession states, concerns over immigration, general foreign policy priorities and national ideological approaches towards the future shape and orientation of the European Union.     

Scrutinising European Union legislation in light of subsidiarity: the Maltese Parliament

ABSTRACT

One of the main objectives of the Lisbon Treaty was to increase the democratic legitimacy of the European Union (EU). Member state parliaments were, therefore, equipped with new tools for monitoring compliance of EU draft laws with the principle of subsidiarity. The aim of this article is to shed some light on the unicameral Maltese Parliament’s ex ante subsidiarity scrutiny of European legislation. Based on the island’s historical and cultural background, the Kamra tad-Deputati confers great importance to the application of subsidiarity, although it is still in its learning curve over the rapid and effective implementation of such procedures.     

Double-layered ethnic politics in Malaysia: national integration,ethnic unity and social stability

Each ethnic community has an ethnic-based political party both within the government coalition (Barisan Nasional: BN) and within the opposition coalition (Pakatan Rakyat and Pakatan Harapan). Therefore, Malaysia’s political structure can be described as double-layered ethnic politics. In this political structure, the BN government has been forced to adopt a fluctuating policy framework for nation building. As a result, double-layered ethnic politics impedes the development of national integration. Paradoxically, this phenomenon contributes to the maintenance of social stability as this political structure effectively prevents the establishment of a robust ethnic unity that may lead to ethnic conflicts.     

The European Union’s credibility–expectations gap in its European neighbourhood policy: perspectives from Georgia and Ukraine

ABSTRACT

Fifteen years have passed since the European Union launched the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). Despite the EU’s attempts to reload the ENP, first in 2011 and later in 2015, in response to challenges in the neighbourhood, the ENP continues to suffer from a credibility-expectations gap. This article argues that understanding neighbour perceptions of the ENP offers useful insights about the ENP. Supported by twenty-five interviews with Georgian and Ukrainian public officials, the article unveils the EU’s credibility challenge in the Eastern neighbourhood caused by a gap between the EU’s own perception of its role and the role expectations held by the ENP partners, as well as a gap between partners’ expectations and the EU’s performance on the ground. The lack of coherence, legitimacy and consistency has undermined the credibility of the ENP in the eyes of its Eastern partners. The latest review of the ENP does not seem to address the credibility challenge.     

Imagining Islam in Kosovo - The social construction of the Kosovar Muslim subject among European political actors

ABSTRACT

Despite being a Muslim-majority society, Kosovo increasingly securitizes practising Muslims by politicizing the ostentatiously pious among them as a threat to Europe’s security and Kosovar identity. Given the EU’s significant discursive and political power in Kosovo, this article pursues the question of how European representatives conceive of pious Kosovar Muslims, and whether this image might explain their securitization. On the basis of 24 semi-structured interviews with various European officials conducted in 2018, I argue that they predominantly imagine pious Kosovar Muslims as influenced by foreign powers through indoctrination, material incentives or appeals to identity, which does condone their securitization. However, this image is in fact shaped by local Kosovar elites who instil such conceptions in European officials because such an image helps them in the pursuit of their own political agendas. The article exposes the intricate mechanism and power relations that underlie this process of policy-relevant knowledge production.     

South Africa and Myanmar: Beware the politics of perfidy

The article examines the repressive actions of the government of Myanmar, focusing on its continuing incarceration of a Nobel Peace Prize Winner, and questions the diplomatic route South Africa has chosen in terms of its relations with the country.     

Determinants of a regional organisation's role in peace and security: the African Union and the European Union compared

This article presents the determinants of the influence of regional organisations in the area of international peace and security. It is aimed at initiating and provoking debate on the preponderant factors shaping that influence. The factors or determinants treated include (1) the willingness of the regional organisation to act, (2) the acceptance of its actions and (3) its capacity to discharge such peace-related tasks. The determinants are contingent on nine sub-determinants. The article uses a comparative approach, focusing on the African Union and the European Union after placing the discussion in the context of the relationship between regional organisations and the United Nations in international peace and security efforts.     

Imagining Europe: political identity and British television coverage of the European economy

The article considers European economic news coverage on British television and its relationship with the UK public's perceptions of and identity with Europe. Stress is placed on the symbolic content of news about Europe; stories about the economic entitlements offered to citizens within the European Union; and portrayal of material benefits or losses for Britain. The results suggest that coverage offers mixed signals about Europe. As yet, they offer an unlikely platform for the development in the United Kingdom of European solidarity or identity. The results are assessed in the light of the way journalists approach political issues. The implications for statistical modelling of the media's relationship with attitudes towards Europe are also considered.     

Hype,disillusionment and capacity problems: Turkish Cypriot media and the European Union

Since the failed 2004 Annan Plan referendum, a special relationship between the Turkish Cypriot community and the EU institutions has been established. Increased unofficial contacts have paved the way for a reinforced role of sub-state actors, including Turkish Cypriot media. The role of the Turkish Cypriot media in shaping public opinion towards the EU has been largely correlated with the course of the Cyprus negotiations. Weak institutionalisation has negatively affected the influence of the local media on advancing the sui generis relationship between the Turkish Cypriot community and the European Union, as well as Europeanisation in the northern part of Cyprus. This article applies the theoretical framework of horizontal and vertical Europeanisation to explore the impact of local media on the relations between the European Union and the Turkish Cypriot community.     

Power,cultural nationalism,and postcolonial public architecture: building a parliament house in post-independence Myanmar

This article focuses on the contested, and frequently postponed, construction of a new parliament house in postcolonial Myanmar. Since the late colonial period, the country’s legislative bodies have convened in four different buildings, three located in the former capital Yangon and the latest one in Naypyitaw. Drawing on legislative proceedings and media reports, this study interrogates the relationship between decolonisation, national identity, state-building, and public architecture in post-independence Myanmar. It suggests that the commissioning and construction of a new legislative house has always served a dual objective: projecting state power and national pride in both Myanmar’s early postcolonial and later post-junta political contexts, whilst symbolising a sense of nationhood grounded on the representational ideals of the dominant and ruling ethnic Bamar elites.     

The Impact of the European Union on Sub-National Mobilization in A Unitary State: The Case of Estonia

The discussion of multi-level governance and sub-national mobilization has become a critical case for those concerned with the political and institutional consequences of European integration. The evidence so far indicates that the EU impact on the empowerment of the sub-national level has not been as uniform within member states as the multi-level governance concept traditionally would assume. This article explores the Europeanization impact on sub-national mobilization in Estonia. The results of the study address the factors affecting the emergence of multi-level governance and provide a foundation for the analysis of the possible wider applicability of these manifestations to a wider set of countries with similar territorial and political structures.     

International Organisations and the Evolution of Humanitarianism: Cross-perspectives on the Commonwealth and the European Union

Abstract

As international relations actors in the post-Second World War world, international organisations have played a significant role in the standardisation of global policy concepts during the 20th century, and humanitarian assistance has been no exception. While the study of the role of international organisations in shaping a dominant model of humanitarian aid has recently gathered pace, few historians have focused on different, less successful models and interpretations developed by other international organisations. Recently declassified Commonwealth Secretariat records show that discussions within the Secretariat and among member states regarding the potential objectives and scope of Commonwealth humanitarian assistance programmes took place as early as the 1960s, and continued throughout the following decades. This article provides an overview of the origin and evolution of the Commonwealth’s approach to humanitarian assistance since the 1960s. Its objective is to document this hitherto little known aspect of Commonwealth assistance policies, and, based on an initial literature and archival survey, to contribute to the identification of further research questions and gaps in this aspect of Commonwealth history. Although they are very different in nature and scope, the Commonwealth and the European Union share at least one common feature in so far as humanitarian assistance is concerned, namely their difficulty in reaching a consensual definition of it. By exploring the links and discrepancies between, as well as within, each organisation’s approach to humanitarian assistance, and by examining the initiatives of some of their member states, this paper seeks to highlight the plasticity of the definition of humanitarian assistance.     

The politics of bank ownership and currency policies in Central and Eastern Europe

This paper argues that state-owned, private domestic, and foreign banks have different preferences for exchange rate policies. More specifically, I posit that governments will be less willing and able to maintain fixed exchange rate arrangements in closed banking systems dominated by government-owned banks than in globalized banking systems with a large presence of foreign banks. The article’s principal claim rests on the notion that ownership structure of the banking system empowers different types of banks, affects their interests, and shapes the responsiveness of government politicians to bank demands. The bank ownership types further influence the stability of the domestic monetary system and financial regulation that are of paramount importance in the determination of exchange rate regimes. An empirical investigation of data on exchange rate regimes for 25 Central and Eastern European countries provides strong support for the theory. The results are robust to alternative estimation techniques, instrumental variable analysis, and the inclusion of several economic and political variables.     

Complying with European standards of minority education: Estonia's relations with the European Union,OSCE and Council of Europe

Abstract

Between 1993 and 2000, Estonia's policy towards minority education experienced four approximate phases of development, each denoting an increasing degree of compliance with European norms, which call on governments to provide individuals belonging to minorities with access to education in their mother tongue. This article argues that the European Union, OSCE and Council of Europe played a role, at timed key and at times mediated, in Estonia policy transformation. Whereas EU material incentives triggered Estonia's willingness to embark on policy change, the dialogue conducted by OSCE and COE representatives helps explain the content and trajectory of the changes introduced thereafter.     

Revisiting the national question and rethinking the political trajectory of Africa in the 21st century

Abstract

The national question in postcolonial Africa encapsulates the totality of national and social challenges that needs resolution. These include the burden of building postcolonial nations, reconstructing postcolonial states, promoting economic development, entrenching popular democracy, defending national sovereignty, consolidating political power, and eventually achieving regional integration and pan-African unity, as long term goals. To resolve these issues, founding fathers crafted different national projects as working ideological and political frameworks, aimed at resolving the national question. This article builds on the continuing concern about the national question, to carry out a critical historiographical study of the nature and conflicted agendas of national project(s), while at the same time providing substatiation for their resuscitation during the current age of failing capitalist neo-liberal project. The premise of the article is that the national question remains relevant beyond the 20^th century as it entails dealing with unresolved national and social questions including challenges of converting territorial nationalism into pan-Africanism as well as democratising global asymmetrical power politics in the 21^st century.     

Tensions between congress and the executive in nineteenth-century Argentina: federal intervention and separation of powers

SUMMARY

This article analyses the debates that took place in the Congress of Argentina between the enactment of the constitution in 1853 and the end of the century, regarding the powers of the executive and legislative branches for intervening in the provinces in case of internal conflict or external attack. It focuses on the controversies arising from different bills submitted to congress in order to enact a general intervention act to resolve, once and for all, the powers of each branch in that matter. Although those bills did not pass, a study of them shows the existing disagreements about the operation of the federal system and the separation of powers. Some of the differences were linked to the discussion of American constitutional doctrine in which Argentina had been engaged since the mid nineteenth century in order to solve the dilemmas of organizing its political institutions. This article claims that this analysis contributes to ongoing debates on the roots of political conflict in Argentina by showing the importance of institutional controversies, and argues that it is necessary to address the role of congress and of doctrinal dissent in order to revise the role that historiography has given to the disputes over power as an overall explanation for political confrontations.     

Two elections and a political regime in crisis: Turkish politics at the crossroads

Turkey had its fourth National Assembly elections on 7 June 2015 in the twenty-first century and this time they resulted in a hung parliament. The efforts at establishing a coalition government failed and the country moved to a snap, ‘repeat’ election on 1 November 2015. This paper focuses on how the voters registered their party preferences almost 5 months apart in the same legislative general elections and why. Using the same sample and interviewing those who lived at the same addresses as those in the ISSP Citizenship survey conducted February to April 2015 and again in October 2015, a panel data-set was constructed. A theoretical framework for voting behaviour that uses party identification, political ideology, ethnic, religious, social class identities and perceptions of the performance of the economy of the respondents to understand what factors help to influence the party preferences of the same respondents 5 months apart. A multivariate (binary logistic regression) analysis of the pre-June and October 2015 data sets revealed that economic voting had been the predominant factor in the June elections, but security concerns also interacted with popular economic evaluations in the November 2015 elections to reinstall the AKP to power.     

Monetisation of electoral politics and the challenge of political exclusion in Nigeria

This paper argues that money has become the deciding factor in Nigerian politics. It has served the purposes of consolidating elite rule as well as the political exclusion of the non-elite. A discernible ‘ritual of money politics’, has enabled the power elite to remain in power, and new comers to develop the elite character. This paper concludes that money politics is at the heart of the general crisis of democracy and governance in Nigeria, and unless this is mitigated, reforms aimed at bringing about good governance and curbing other anomalies in the political system may not produce the desired results.     

Integrating domestic politics and foreign policy making: the cases of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

Matters of domestic political consideration exerted a major influence on the processes of foreign policy making established and developed by the authoritarian leaderships of post-Soviet Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The preservation of internal authoritarian stability and the political survival of the national regimes have therefore constituted the key foreign policy ends set by decision makers in Ashgabat and Tashkent. This article unveils and discusses the interconnection between domestic politics and foreign policy making in post-Soviet Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan by looking comparatively at the dynamics through which the regimes manipulated foreign policy to consolidate their internal power. In particular, this article will analyse the crucial role played by foreign policy in the regimes' responses to perceived threats to their political stability.