Ronald Holzhacker

Democratic Legitimacy and the European Union

Abstract This is an introduction to a Special Issue that first considers representative and deliberative conceptions of democratic legitimacy in the EU, and then presents empirical research on how the institutions of the EU are attempting to increase the democratic legitimacy of the multi‐level political system. The first three articles concern central democratic concepts and use political theory and institutional analysis. The second set of three articles turns to an empirical analysis of the institutions and institutional processes of the EU and the member states, including the European Commission and the media, the European Parliament and the Open Method of Coordination. It is concluded that both representative and deliberative mechanisms within each of the member states and the EU institutions need to be improved in order to increase the democratic legitimacy of the EU among the citizens.

The Transnationalization of Economies, States, and Civil Societies

Two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we are witnessing an ever quickening dissolution of the boundaries between internal and external actors and the critical factors for understanding domestic institutional change. In the transnationalization of the economies of Western and Eastern Europe, international cross-ownership networks are playing a growing, and at times dominant role in domestic economies. These economies are governed by states that are increasingly sharing larger and larger parts of their regulative powers with non-domestic actors. These regulations are contested by civil societies that are increasingly based on networks of interlinked domestic and external NGOs. This is an emerging research agenda extending earlier research on transnationalization, which focused on the supra-national level, and it goes beyond the Europeanization literature that focused on externally induced or imposed change in domestic institutions. This book brings together in one volume the study of transnationalization in three institutional fields: civil society, state and the economy and extends the research of processes of transnationalization to evolving new democracies and emerging market economies. This book should be of interest to scholars and students in the field of political science, public policy, European studies, and international relations.

State-Sponsored Homophobia and the Denial of the Right of Assembly in Central and Eastern Europe: The “Boomerang” and the “Ricochet” between European Organizations and Civil Society to Uphold Human Rights

State�?sponsored homophobia emerged in certain Central and Eastern European states in the past decade with the denial of the right of assembly for gay pride marches. However, more recently there has been progress in the recognition of the fundamental democratic right of assembly. What accounts for this progress in fulfilling commitments enshrined in the European human rights treaties? This article proposes that the response of European organizations, in particular the Council of Europe and the European Union, as well as human rights nongovernmental organizations working in collaboration with local civil society organizations, have been critical to this progress. Previous literature has described a “boomerang�? effect, in which aggrieved citizens use transnational activist networks to publicize human rights violations and put pressure on governments to fulfill their international legal commitments. To understand the functioning and effectiveness of the “boomerang�? we introduce the concept of the “ricochet�? - a process in which various institutions and civil society rapidly exchange information as well as political and legal argumentation. We posit that the ricochet is an integral process in the development of a European consensus on the human rights recognized by the European Court of Human Rights. Four cases have been selected for empirical analysis: Poland, Latvia, Serbia, and Russia. In analyzing the ricochet of information and argumentation between institutions and civil society, we find the consensus has been framed around the right of assembly, instead of the more contested area of human rights and sexual orientation.

Freedom, Security and Justice in the European Union

As the European Union has evolved, it has also begun to address policy questions which are closer to the very heart of the state. From cooperation in Justice and Home Affairs, originally conceived as the third pillar of European cooperation, has emerged the Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice (AFSJ). A unique aspect of policy in this area is the desire to integrate the internal and external dimensions of this policy area. One of the tensions in this policy area has been balancing the protection of fundamental rights and increasing security. The first part of this book focuses on the institutional relations of policymaking in AFSJ, both within member states and between member states, in particular the issues of national executive control, national parliamentary scrutiny and peer review across the member states with regard to AFSJ. The second part focuses on specific policy areas which are part of AFSJ. Two chapters highlight the tension found in this policy area between security and human or fundamental rights, the first related to data retention and the second on policing external borders. The final two chapters are concerned with data exchange among European countries and transatlantically with the US, and the interface between AFSJ and the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The chapters contained in the book were presented at the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and the Dutch national parliament (Tweede Kamer), making it of interest to scholars and practitioners alike.

Three Converging Literatures of Transnationalization and the Varieties of Transnationalization: Introduction

Two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we are witnessing an ever quickening dissolution of the boundaries among internal and external actors in the countries of Europe and the factors inducing domestic institutional change. If one takes the example of the 10 new Eastern and Central European member countries of the European Union, these countries best exemplify one new pattern of change that we discuss in this book. In the economies of these countries, international crossownership networks play a growing role (Bohle and Greskovits 2007; Stark and Vedres 2009). While 80–90% of the banks are in foreign ownership in the region, foreign companies also own key parts of the manufacturing sectors, and many of the firms in these sectors form part of transnational production chains. These economies are governed by states that share ever larger parts of their regulative powers with nondomestic actors (Bruszt and Stark 2003). As a condition of joining the European Union, these countries had to adopt tens of thousands of pages of EU regulations, ranging from rules of competition to state aid, environmental regulations and food safety regulations to institutions of corporate governance. The great quantity of rules of nondomestic origins has increased further with the participation of these states in diverse regional and global institutions with standard-setting and rule-making functions ranging from WTO and ILO to specific multilateral agreements. In the framework of encompassing EU programmes, the transposition of the thousands of EU rules in the domestic law books went hand in hand with building up transnational networks. Actors in these networks were domestic and external, public and private, and their role was to assist these countries in developing domestic capacities to implement, enforce and monitor new rules (see Chapter 2 of this volume). Parallel with the external promotion of domestic actors’ developmental capacities, several of the key functional units of these states responsible for fiscal,

‘Gay Rights are Human Rights’ The Framing of New Interpretations of International Human Rights Norms

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the development of the framing of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons and sexual orientation and gender identity in terms of a human rights paradigm. This decades-long process involved many actors, from within academia, gay and lesbian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), such as the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), and within mainstream “gatekeeper” human rights NGOs, such as Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW). News of these developments reached the broader public as news stories and commentary were increasingly reported in the popular media in the early 2010s. The process became more institutionalized as political and judicial bodies in Europe, the United States, and the United Nations began to debate and take action on this emerging conception of human rights. While “Gay rights are human rights” may be succinct as a slogan, it expanded over time to be more inclusive, such as “gay and lesbian rights are human rights” or, more broadly, human rights based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Bargaining between local governments and multinational corporations in a decentralised system of governance: the cases of Ogan Komering Ilir and Banyuwangi districts in Indonesia

Studies of the relationships between local governments and multinational corporations (MNCs) regarding foreign direct investment (FDI) remain few, despite many countries having implemented policies of decentralisation. In response, by employing ideas about decentralisation, FDI and political bargaining, this article addresses the relationships using two districts in Indonesia as case studies, from which some significant interrelated insights are acquired. One is that the local governments concerned are open to FDI, with their relationships with MNCs being cooperative rather than conflictual. Another is that their bargaining positions vis-à-vis MNCs are inevitably influenced by varying alignments of goals, stakes, resources and constraints. A third is that alternative bargaining arrangements are possible in the form of direct and indirect negotiations, with corresponding involvement by other levels of government. These and associated insights confirm the importance of the relationships and the bargaining process involved, with an ongoing focus on how the relationships and the results thereof can be enhanced in the interests of sound socio-economic development at the local level.

Decentralization and Governance for Sustainable Society in Indonesia

Indonesia, over the past two decades, has embarked on a process of decentralization as part of a broader process of democratization, which followed earlier periods of centralized governance and authoritarian rule across the archipelago. The purpose of this book is to explore the connections between governance and sustainable society in a wide variety of policy fields in Indonesia,Indonesia and how reforming governance structures may contribute to societal benefits and the creation of a long-term sustainable society. The structures created may be characterized as a variable form of multi-governance, with varying types of relationships between the central government and newly empowered local governments.

Decentralization and Governance in Indonesia

Indonesia, over the past two decades, has embarked on a process of decentralization as part of a broader process of democratization, which followed earlier periods of centralized governance and authoritarian rule across the archipelago. The purpose of this book is to explore the connections between governance and sustainable society in a wide variety of policy fields in Indonesia,Indonesia and how reforming governance structures may contribute to societal benefits and the creation of a long-term sustainable society. The structures created may be characterized as a variable form of multi-governance, with varying types of relationships between the central government and newly empowered local governments.

Framing the Debate: The Evolution of the European Union as an External Democratization Actor

Embedded in the Normative Power Europe framework, this chapter first identifies three critical junctures that are essential to understanding the approach the EU has developed with regard to its external democratization agenda: (i) the end of the Cold War, (ii) the 2004 EU enlargement to the East, and (iii) the events surrounding the Arab Spring in conjunction with the European economic crisis. Next, the chapter delineates four main dimensions of the contemporary EU approach to external democratization: direct programs and instruments, the indirect economic approach, international and regional coordinating approaches, and a multilevel approach with the member states.