Verified Document

Is The European Union A State Or What Else Distinguishes It From Other International Organizations  Research Paper

¶ … European Union a state, or what else distinguishes it from other International Organizations The primary question concerning global organizations as a medium of global governance relates towards the quantity and excellence of this governance within an era where we now have an overdeveloped global economy as well as an under-developed global polity (Ougaard and Higgott, 2002). There's a powerful disconnect amid governance, being an efficient and effective collective solution-seeking process within a given problem-area, and governance being the democratic legitimacy of policy formation. It has made possible the debate regarding 'legitimacy shortfalls' in main global organizations. Furthermore, governance has turned into a hosting analogy determining non-traditional performers (non-condition performers for example NGOs and their local and international associations) that participate as portable agents extending and expanding policy understanding, which is far more advanced and sophisticated than the traditional, elitist, government activities. The interest in global (as well as the regional) governance is complicated and also the role of multilevel governance formations in major policy spheres, increased through the role and processes of both problem-specific and regional focused agencies, is continuing to grow among scholars (Higgott and Erman, 2008).

Nonetheless, in certain key regions of the global cooperative agenda, both in the economical and also the security domain, one seems to be seeing the degeneration of collective governance capacity and potential to deal with its progression even. In certain problem areas, the use of institutions as mediums for discussing information, developing trust and improving compliance are coming as unschooled while international policymaking issues oppose the technocratic handling and put forward key political as well as ethical concerns on the methods of policymaking, choices taken and assets distributed. For a lot of professionals, development in global governance is restricted by presumptions that it must take on the layer of the ethically neutral activity, getting rid of politics or ethics from problem fixing (Higgott and Erman, 2008).

Global economic, legal and political governance has turned out to be plans (across a spectrum from the weaker to the stronger to influence and persuade ) that local state and non-state actors attempt to set up to promote, administer, delay, legalize or alleviate political and economic globalization. For any global policy cooperation, propelled usually by economic philosophy, the delivery of community well-being by means of collective solution-oriented results in global governance is very important. This is where the dominant knowledge of governance in the global level is prominent. Similarly, performers (both governmental and non-governmental alike) aren't ethically neutral; in fact they most often have hidden political agendas. By comparison, intellectual interest, driven by normative (frequently cosmopolitan) philosophy and concentrating on issues of citizen participation, social justice as well as democratic authenticity results in what we should call global governance (Higgott and Erman, 2008).

In this paper we compare and evaluate European Union (EU) and World Trade Organization (WTO) as international administrative actors with a view to their democratic legitimacy. The paper sheds light on global governance as a fiscal theory of governance focusing on the development of efficiency and competence within the delivery of global public well-being via collective solution-oriented methods. Furthermore, the paper also posits global governance as a political theory of governance emphasizing the struggle for public representation and accountability which will promote legitimacy as well as democratization of policy-making in the international context (Higgott and Erman, 2008).

European Union (EU)

A transfer of powers

The European integration in the last fifty years has actually become a political project, whereas, it originally started with the economic perspective regarding coal and steel in the fifties. Treaty of Amsterdam, the Single European Act and the Treaty of Maastricht all came into being because of the modifications of the radical treaty; the parameter of actions has also been extended by them which resulted in the formation of the European Union (EU).

The European institution's regulatory performance enhanced a lot when the internal market's completion became a top priority from the mid eighties onwards. Three hundred proposals were launched by the European Commission for the purpose of the realization of this internal market during the years 1985-1992. This trend has not stopped; at least it is still being followed in the daily EU policy even in the European "feeling of depression" since Maastricht. It...

(art. 249 EG). New margins have also been set by Europe through new methods like "open co-ordination" and these margins have to be followed by the member states (Aziz, 2006).
But the democratic legitimization is not very common in some of the member states such as De facto and de jure member states have lost the power and control that they had in the policy making in the past. Policies such as trade, industry, environment, and transport along with many other policies have been given to Europe in past decades. Euroland, which consists of twelve member states, no longer has any control over their currency policy; in fact, they have been separated from it once and for all. Although the National Ministers still play a significant role in decision making but since they don't have the veto power anymore they are often faced with decisions that they are totally against but still have to implement. Although it is really difficult to calculate the percentage of the legislation actually gave vote within the member states, but it is estimated that the number of the members of the parliament is around 70% (Miller 2000: 210). What is actually surprising regarding this method is that there is little or no amount of research that is done by the parliament, maybe it is because they fear that their own actions would be exposed if they do the research.

The question of democratic legitimacy

EU is definitely not a nation state; as everyone likes to remind and debate on it. It is "the first truly postmodern political form" (Ruggie 1993: 139-40; also see Aziz, 2006), "less than a federation, more than a regime" (Wallace 1983; also see Aziz, 2006) "sui generis," or an "unidentified political object" (Delors, cited in Schmitter 1996: 1 also see Aziz, 2006). And still whenever the topic of the shortage of democracy comes up, it is found that EU is always compared to the nation-state governments and the significant point to note here is that it is found wanting as well. But the question is that if we do want to avoid this problem than what or whom should we compare it with i.e. If we have to do the comparison in the first place. In my opinion it would be a lot better if we think of it as a "regional state." By "regional state" I mean thinking of it as a "regional union of nation-states" because of which the always continuing national differentiation and the increasing integration between the Union and its member states will be ensured. There are two reasons because of which I have used the term "regional state" here. The first reason is; to expand the concept of a state with the help of an ideational strategy so that it could encompass EU and the second reason is the breaking of the nation-state concept regarding the understanding of the democracy that is found in the EU and its member states by the use of a discursive strategy. Therefore, even if the first notion regarding the expansion of the concept of the state won't win many converts, the second reason will be very useful as it will show the extent to which EU is and probably will remain different form its nearby counterparts which are also economically advanced nations with implemented governance of democracy such as; Switzerland, United States and Japan and also, some of EU's own member states (Schmidt and Monnet, 2004).

All the nation-states mentioned above have has some certain finalized characteristics such as; clear identity, indivisible sovereignty, cohesive democracy, fixed boundaries and established government. Whereas, EU is based on the concept of its development as the first among the regional states and in EU the sovereignty is shared among the member states, external reorganization and internal acceptance, the boundaries are also not fixed geographically as well as with regards to the policies. In the EU the government is very complex because of the multi-form institutions, multi-level and multi-centered approaches and policies (Schmidt and Monnet, 2004).

Also, I don't think that there is a lot democratic legitimization shown by EU and the definition of democracy given by the nation-states do not fit the one given by EU. Nation-states definitions of democracy are; "government for the people" which is done by effective government, "government by the people" that is carried out through political participation, "government of the people" which is also done through the representation of…

Sources used in this document:
References

Andersen, S., Eliassen, K. ( 1996) Introduction: dilemmas, contradictions and the future of European democracy, in: Andersen, S., Eliassen, K. (eds.) The European Union: how democratic is it?, London: Sage, 1-11.

Aziz, M (2006) 'Chinese whispers: the citizen, the law and the constitution', Chapter 10 in D. Castiglione et al.: The Convention Moment: An Experiment in European Constitutional Politics, Basingstoke: Palgrave-MacMillan, forthcoming.

Aziz, M. (2004) 'Mainstreaming the Duty of clarity and Transparency as part of Good Administrative Practice in the EU', European Law Journal, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 282-95.

Bacchus, James (2005). A Few Thoughts on Legitimacy, Democracy, and the WTO: in Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann (ed.), Reforming the World Trading System. Legitimacy, Efficiency, and Democratic Governance (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 429-436.
Scharpf, F.W. (1996). Demokratie in der transnationalen Politik. MPIfG Working Paper 96/3, November. URL: http://www.mpifg.de/pu/workpap/wp96-3/wp96-3.html.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

International Relations- Australia Australia: Some
Words: 1462 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

D., p.3). The author holds the position that no one tradition is best-suited in maximizing and advancing Australia's national interests in the international platform not just because all three traditions have their innate strengths but more so because these very same traditions have their innate weaknesses which make us believe that following only one line of foreign policy tradition is all but worry-free. The Evatt tradition has a widely-known pitfall. It is

New Pattern of Integration Through Governmental Coordination European...
Words: 7020 Length: 22 Document Type: Term Paper

New Pattern of Integration Through Governmental Coordination: European Perspective The beginning of the European Union was with the coalition of six nations (namely France, Germany, Italia, Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg) who entered into a treaty back in the year 1951 to determine the ECU Coal and Steel Community. The next signed treaty was in the year 1957 to determine the ECU Economic Community. The Coal and Steel Community were also built

Accession to the World Trade Organization in
Words: 6991 Length: 20 Document Type: Dissertation

accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, China's laws regarding intellectual property rights were largely weak and ineffective, even though there were some laws on the books that were designed to protect these rights. Much of this ineffectiveness is attributed to the state-controlled economy that was in place that made observation and respect for domestic and international intellectual property rights dispensable. In its efforts to accede to the

The Eight Stages of Genocide
Words: 3150 Length: 10 Document Type: Research Paper

Structure and Functions of Pre-Genocidal Societies: Nazi Germany and Cambodia Between the two of them, the genocidal societies of Nazi Germany and Cambodia murdered around 8 million innocent civilians before being stopped by the international community. Not surprisingly, the targeted civilians in these genocides were also subjected to enormous economic discrimination prior to these respective "final solutions," and these issues form the basis of this analysis. This paper explores the

Managing Organizational Culture
Words: 9860 Length: 34 Document Type: Dissertation

Human Resources Managing Organisational Culture The values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization make up the organizations culture. Organizational culture is the summation total of an organization's past and current suppositions, incidents, viewpoint, and values that hold it together, and is articulated in its self-image, inner workings, connections with the outside world, and future prospects. In dealing with the management of organisational culture, it is

American Visual Arts During the Cold War Period
Words: 12184 Length: 40 Document Type: Research Paper

Abstract Expressionist Painting Artistic and Aesthetic Value in American Modernist Art during the Cold War Era Defining American Expressionism American modernism is perhaps one of the most difficult artistic periods to define. Modernism refers to a trend that affirms the power of human beings to create, shape, and make improvements to their environment. Modernism is aided by technological advances and is considered both progressive and optimistic in its approach to defining society. American

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now