Install this application on your home screen for quick and easy access when you’re on the go.
Just tap then “Add to Home Screen”
In person icon Building: Faculty of Arts, Floor: 2, Room: FA209
Thursday 09:00 - 10:40 CEST (08/09/2016)
In this panel we analyze and apply Member State Theory (MST). The theory suggests a fundamental and ongoing transformation of the EU member countries from sovereign nation states to member states. Here we draw heavily on the research by Christopher Bickerton (2012) and Bickerton et al. (2015) and the ideas presented in this literature, but we adapt the perspective, which is mainly focused at the EU level, to the study of one member state in particular: Sweden! Our primary concern is with the current state of Swedish democracy, but we study this by analyzing the main developments since the 1990s. The emerging theory stems from the theoretical insights of what has been labelled as New intergovernmentalism (Bickerton et al., 2015). The basic insight is that the problem with the previous theories of integration – particularly neofunctionalism and intergovernmentalism -- is that they both have had the nation state as a common denominator. One argues that the traditional nation state will largely prevail (intergovernmentalists), while the other suggest that a new (nation) state is developing at the supranational level (neofunctionalists). None of these positions explain very well what has happened during the last 25 years of integration (post-Maastricht). Instead, the so called integration paradox (Puetter, 2012) illustrates how substantial political power has been transferred from the national level to the EU-system (which is expected by the neofunctionalists); however, at the same time, the national governments has been reluctant to yield their power to supranational institutions (which is predicted by the intergovernmentalists). Here both neofunctionalists and intergovernmentalists have the same fallacy – they are limited by the belief that the fundaments of the twentieth century nation state will prevail on one level or the other. Instead, a new form of state is emerging – the member state. Empirically, this panel is focused on how a process of member country transformation from nation-state to member-state impacts on the relationships between voters, parliament, the government and the state administration. A vital part of this panel is to understand how the constitutional legacy of Sweden, in terms of both formal rules and of practices, shapes and is shaped by the process of transformation. And, in particular, this panel will offer a much needed empirical underpinning to the member state aspect of the MST theory. The implications of this workshop go much beyond the Swedish case. The papers contribute to a Member State theory that also has much to say about the transformation of other member states.
Title | Details |
---|---|
Member State Theory meets Swedish representative democracy | View Paper Details |
Member State Theory and the Cartel Party Thesis | View Paper Details |
Conceptualizing the Roles of National Civil Servants in a Post-Sovereign Polity | View Paper Details |
Member state theory meets regional and local governance | View Paper Details |