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POLITICAL-SCIENCE DILEMMAS REGARDING THE EUROPEAN UNION: IN SEARCH OF A DEFINITION
Damir Grubiša
; Fakultet političkih znanosti Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
This paper discusses the dilemmas regarding the nature of the European Union
in contemporary political science and in the field of European Studies as
a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field. The first part focuses on the
evolution of the European Union from the original European Coal and Steel
Community, via the European Economic Community, to its growth into a political
union. The Maastricht Treaty, which lay the foundations of the European
Union as a political union of its member states, instigated a debate on
the actual nature of this supranational union as political construct. Consequently,
the author analyses the various characteristics of the European Union,
which is manifest in various forms, and asserts that it has some “state-
-like features” and some “organisation-like features”, which are characteristic
of international organizations. In the approach to the European Union as
a supra-state community, some essential traits of both federation and confederation
are simultaneously manifest, corresponding to two tendencies in the
development of the European Union as a super-state. Moreover, there is the
conception of the European Union as an empire. Finally, this paper specifies
the tasks of present-day political science and the need to find a new heuristic
instrument, which, according to the author, can be found in the conception
of the political system that was introduced in political science (comparative
politics) by Gabriel Almond and David Easton. Such an approach, which is
nowadays further developed by Jean-Pierre Quermonne, Wolfgang Wessels
and Simon Hix, is additionally strengthened by the fact that various models of
democratic practice are being incorporated in the European Union in opposition
to the basic, legitimacy-related democratic deficit, models which confirm
the possible conclusion regarding a European Union as a complex community
with many faces.
Ključne riječi
European Union; super-state; state-like features; organisation-like features; supra-state federation; confederation; empire; political system of the European Union; political community sui generis
Hrčak ID:
72013
URI
Datum izdavanja:
4.10.2011.
Posjeta: 3.563 *