The Role of Elites in the Processes of European Integration and Enlargement of the European Union

European integration and the enlargement of the European Union can be reconstructed as ‘top-down' processes which were initiated and coordinated by elites and subsequently submitted to the approval of a wider public. A historical shift of European elites' orientations from irreconcilable ideological and nationalistic antagonisms to reconciliation, co-operation and the preparedness for power sharing was the prerequisite for their pivotal role in these processes. The process of European elite rapprochement resembles in many respects the forming of a Consensual Elite (Highley et. al.), which was in turn considered to be the principal determinant for the formation and consolidation of representative democracies. Both European integration and representative democracy require an elites' ethos of unity in diversity, norms of restrained partisanship, willingness to compromise, and dense and interconnected networks of elite co-operation. If this analogy is correct we should see a process of convergence of national elites in Europe preceding or at least co-occurring with the processes of European integration and EU enlargement. The section will be devoted to the theoretical and empirical exploration of relations between elite change and processes of European integration and EU enlargement. Although a long term approach will be applied, extending the period of observation from the prehistory of European integration to the present day , special emphasis will be given to the recent and still ongoing period of eastward enlargement of the European Union, including studies into countries with candidate status. The focus will be on political elites, but contributions to other elite groups, in particular economic and cultural elites, are welcome. Panel proposals for the following topics are welcome (more than one panel per topic can be accepted; the list of topics is not exhaustive): Long term trends in European elite transformations: are European elites' structures and attitudes converging? The emergence of a European ‘Eurocracy': Members of the European Parliament and senior officials in European institutions. Elite mass relations: a transeuropean comparison. Elites in new member and candidate states of the EU: structural and attitudinal compatibilities with elites of ‘Old Europe'. The relations between elite change and social change in European societies in a long term perspective. Elite settings and democratic development: The Eastern and Central Eastern European experience. Forging a European identity? The role of elites in (re-)defining forms of citizenship and cultural identities in Europe. The notion of political class. Theoretical contributions and empirical tests in Europe and the USA Sub-national, local and urban political elites in Europe.