Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Saurugger, Sabine
• Thatcher, Mark

Titel

EU political identity, integration and top-down analyses: a reply to Neil Fligstein

Ist Teil von

• Comparative European politics (Houndmills, Basingstoke, England), 2019-08, Vol.17 (4), p.624-630

Ort / Verlag

Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan

Erscheinungsjahr

2019

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

PAIS Index

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This reply to Neil Fligsteins thought-provoking comments on this special issue's contributions analyses three specific aspects: the problems of comparing identity construction in different policy areas due to differences in European integration; the focus on EU institutions and lack of attention to social groups and citizens; the EU as a state. We argue that instead of offering one overarching theory of EU state building, the articles analyse what most would regard as a key aspect of a state—political identity—and then consider its top-down policy aspect. This has several advantages: a degree of manageability; seeking careful hypotheses; separating parts that are conceptually distinct, notably the creation of a political identity and then whether citizens actually identify with it; investigating causal linkages.