The Concept of a European Public Sphere within European Public Discourse (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Democratic Function of the Public Sphere in Europe
German Law Journal
Democratically legitimized European integration calls for developments in culture and society—which arise naturally in the scope of on-going political, economic and institutional European Union (EU) integration—to be publically debated so they may be politically processed. The space where this happens is the public sphere, or, in the context of the EU, the European public sphere. The latter complements national public spheres. Successful integration among EU Member States is made possible by adhering to a common set of values at the same time as respecting the national identities of the Member States and fostering cultural diversity. By way of Union citizenship rights, individuals are able to make use of and actively promote the Europeanization of societies and cultures. Yet citizens are affected by Europeanization to differing degrees, with only a minority of citizens actively partaking in transnational exchange. In order to account for European integration democratically, the EU t...
The European Public Sphere – Barriers and Limitations
Zeszyty Prasoznawcze, 2018
The European public sphere appears only incidentally and temporarily and even then, European issues are presented through the prism of national benefits or loss. All of this is not conducive to the creation of a European identity, nor the legitimization of EU. Should the media and the journalists be blamed for this state of affairs? How do they perceive their role in the process of European integration? Where, in their opinion, are the causes, which render the creation of a European public sphere impossible? This article will present the results of individual depth interviews (IDI) conducted with German press journalists (16).
European Journal of Social Theory, 2008
It is an impressive group of authors from many disciplines and countries that Fossum and Schlesinger have brought together is this very timely book with theories, models and analysis of the many aspects of Europeanization and communication inside Europe and the European Union (EU). The history of post-war Europe, the EU and the European generation is in many ways a success story, compared with the past bloody and national history of a strongly divided Europe. However, the development right now, as the editors also reflect upon in the introduction, seems to be at a crossroad where the expansion of the EU demands new structures and procedures, but where at the same time the public support for a grander and more ambitious vision of a unified and expanded European democracy does not seem to produce popular support on a national level.
Correcting the EU’s ‘public sphere deficit’: Toward a Charter for the European Public Space?
In February 2006, in the middle of the “reflection period” that was officially declared after the ratification failures in France and the Netherlands in May and June 2005, European Commission launched a White Paper “on a European Communication Policy”, declaring its determination to ‘close the gap’ between European Union and its citizens. Although the above initiative seems to respond to a lot of theoretical concerns about the missing presuppositions for the formation of Europeanized public spheres, it fails to see the political dimension of this project. I argue that the present disappointing conditions as to the development of real European-centered publics do not only point to the problem of distorted communicative rationality (one that could be resolved via the enhancement and the improvement of the current modes and patterns of political communication). More seriously, these conditions indicate a lack of sufficient symbolic and social resources for the integration of a European polity, with the latter to be broadly conceived as a project of simultaneous democratisation, mediatisation and politicisation.
Conceptualizing European Public Spheres
2004
The development of post-national democracy in Europe depends on the development of an overarching communicative space that functions as a public sphere, viz., a common room created by speakers who are discussing common affairs in front of an audience. This is a place where opinions ideally are formed and changed according to a communicative mode or interaction. The point of departure is Habermas' seminal work on the public sphere from 1962. The author examines the aptness of his recent reformulation of the concept (1992/1996), which is found to be too 'thin'. Further, he distinguishes between a general public sphere, segmented publics and strong publics and clarifies their potential conduciveness to democratic government. General publics are inclusive and open communicative spaces rooted in civil society in the periphery of the political system. Such a sphere is found wanting at the supranational level in Europe. Rather what is discovered are transnational, segmented publics evolving around policy networks constituted by the common interest in certain issues, problems and solutions. The EU also has many strong publics, viz. legally institutionalized discourses specialized on collective will-formation close to the center of the political system.
This paper is focused on the emergence of the European public sphere debate. This discussion has become more and more prominent between scholars of European Studies who have given it both normative and empirical attention. This is due to a variety of reasons, but in particular the increase in research about the legitimacy of European integration, which has been the subject of a wide debate since at least the beginning of the 1990s. Firstly, the article critically assesses the normative arguments that have supported the development of the European public sphere, by focusing on the social, political and cultural dimensions of European integration. After having assessed this debate and underlined current challenges emerged in light of recent events (such as the euro-crisis, the rise of euroscepticism and the rise in far right movements), the article then introduces the empirical research on the europeanisation of the public sphere, by looking at the development of an agenda that has more and more concentrated on the fragmentation and fluidity of such construct. This discussion is key to introduce the final part of the article, which focuses on the role of civil society in the broader European constituency and in the public sphere. The article highlights some of the ambiguities inherent to the current research agenda, by calling for a more comprehensive approach to study active citizenship in Europe that departs from a consideration of the NGOs activists as the main locus of analysis.
The European Public Sphere and the Deficit of Democracy
This chapter explores a threefold European deficit: a democratic deficit, a deficit in European identity, and a deficit in the European public sphere. It argues that although interests such as social movements have most leverage at the national level, since this is the level at which the media are largely organised, the emergence of distinctively 'European' issues such as BSE means that national cycles of media attention are becoming increasingly synchronised. This makes it more likely that a homogenisation of issues and opinion will occur at the European level. This would favour the eventual emergence of a supranational identity. The creation of a European public sphere through the synchronisation and homogenisation of cycles of media attention on contentious 'European' issues is a more realistic prospect than direct attempts to create a 'new European' identity through public education or the legal system.