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.
Managing the EU Crises: Another Way of Integration by Stealth?
Europe has been hit hard by the financial and economic crisis, and there is no fast solution in view. The problem facing the EU is a problem of governance both technically and politically. Most actors, with the possible exception of the ECB, are in disarray because they are caught between the necessity to act and the political reluctance to acknowledge fully the consequences of a multi-level governance system, notably democratic legitimacy and accountability. The discrepancy between political rhetoric and actual practices during the crisis appears as a new form of government by stealth. There is not yet an obvious way out of this morass. The first one seems the easiest as it would be nothing more than ‘muddling through’ as usual, whereas the second option, a two-speed Europe, though more politically attractive, is technically very difficult to implement institutionally. The third possible solution is paradoxically the one that surreptitiously persists at present: a ‘federalism of executives’ that is both unmanageable in the long run and unacceptable from a democratic point of view.
Convergence Anatomization of Aquaculture Production in Leading Fish-Producing Countries During the Period of 1997-2013
Growth and national importance of aquaculture production is empirically assessed as an important indicator of development. The present article aims to test whether the major aquaculture producing countries of the world are converging over time. The authors have applied the absolute and conditional beta convergence and sigma convergence approaches on the data of FAO for the period 1997-2013. The results show that there is an absolute beta convergence and sigma convergence among 25 major aquaculture producing countries; negative sign of coefficient of conditional beta convergence with per capita income is also noticed. It implies, the growth rates of aquaculture for developed nations are declining with rise in per capita income and backward fish-intensive countries are catching up with the giant producers like China and India. The cross-country variations are also going down which means that the countries' development gaps are getting narrowed by means of growth of aquaculture resources.