EUROPEAN POLITICAL INTEGRATION AND THE CONCEPT OF EUROPEANIZATION: FROM INSTITUTIONAL INTEGRATION TO MEDIATIZATION OF POLITICS

Abstract

The article examines the genealogy of the concept of Europeanization, as one of the main concepts of the political theory of European integration, especially with regard to the institutional background of the emergence of European political integration, and the impact of the Europeanization process on the wider context of political actors in the political system: from public policies to the Europeanization of collective identities. In particular, the relationship between the concepts of Europeanization and mediatization of politics is researched in the contemporary political context, in which the role of not only the political system but also fundamental social divisions and the possibility of creating a political environment is being transformed. In this sense, it is explored how contemporary European politics is also the result of the policy of spectacle, the creation of a democracy of identities and how it was realized by the concept of an empty signifier, as a strategic identity tool.