Making Sense of the EU: The Achievements of the Convention
Abstract:Building democracy at the supernational level is an unprecedented task, but so once was building democracy at the level of the modern state. By today’s standards we would not likely classify France, Britain, or the United States in the nineteenth century as “democratic,” but in the time they were in the forefront of democratic development. The same can be said for the European Union today, and the progress of the EU in the last half-century has been remarkable. Recent advancements by the Brussels Convention—reflected in the resulting draft treaty for a European Constitution—represent significant steps forward for entrenching the rule of law, the separation of powers, and the people’s input and participation in Europe’s supernational institutions.
The Political Rationale of the EU Constitutional Treaty: Hegemonic Consideration for the Core Member States*
The constitutional draft of the EU represents remarkable progress compared with the current Treaty of Nice. From a political perspective, the proposed ‘Constitutional Treaty’ has the attributes more of an international treaty than a constitution, and reflects rather incomplete constitutionalism. The EU constitution is regarded as a carefully contrived compromise between the supranational federalist and intergovernmentalist positions. The proposed EU Constitution has grown out of constitutional politics strategically constructed by the core Member States, whose national governments have driven the process of EU constitution-making. We argue here that it is the major Member State-led constitutional politics underlying hegemonic intergovernmental governance that will continue to prevail, and that the concept of EU constitutional federalism seems, at present, to be a rather far off goal.
The politics of affect and emotion in contemporary Latin American cinema : Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, and Mexico
Between Neo-realist Sentimentality and Modernist Shock: New Latin American Cinema and Beyond Thrilling Histories: Questions of Genre and History Affecting Legacies: Contemporary Structures of Feeling Alien/Nation: Contemporary Youth in Film Emotional Investments: Global Networks and Transnational Affective Communities