Too late to dissolve the people and elect another? Cognition, Contingent Consent and Turbulence in the Integration Process?

Cram, Laura (2009) Too late to dissolve the people and elect another? Cognition, Contingent Consent and Turbulence in the Integration Process? In: UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

Consent to the process of European integration is contingent and the reproduction of consent is, in Renan’s (1882) terms, a ‘daily plebiscite’. Each new Treaty conveys a new understanding of what the EU is and ought to be. Analysis of the latest Treaty provisions, intended to bring Europe closer to the people and to address the democratic deficit, demonstrates the extent and implications of competition over competence between the various actors involved. The resulting compromises are manifestations of Haas’s (1976) ‘turbulence’ in practice and also contribute to further ‘turbulence’ by shaping understandings of what the role of the public and other actors within the EU system is and ought to be. Recognising the importance of cognition and contingent consent for the integration process, and the role of EU institutions in reproducing these, requires a rethink of existing approaches to European integration theory and a nuanced socialpsychology of the European Union.

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