Politicization compared: at national, European, and global levels

ABSTRACT

The current literature on politicization can be separated into three groups: politicization within national political systems, of the EU, and of international institutions. In spite of speaking about a similar phenomenon based on a common definition, these three strands of literature do not interact with each other and display, beyond the definitional consensus, significant differences. The focus on different political levels also leads to various assessments. This contribution compares these three strands of literature with the goal of showing that it is necessary to simultaneously look at all three levels to understand the dynamics of politicization and de-politicization. There is a significant potential of analyzing different (de-)politicization processes in an integrative framework to provide fresh insights for each of the fields. In fact, some of the differences between the three kinds of literature can be resolved only by looking at the three levels in parallel.

KEYWORDS:

• Politicization
• multilevel politics
• integration
• technocratic governance
• cleavage

Acknowledgments

I want to express my thanks to Lisa Anders, Niilo Kauppi, Franceso Nicoli, Christian Rauh, and Jonathan Zeitlin, as well as the three reviewers for their most helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Michael Zürn is Director of the Global Governance Research Unit, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, and Professor of Political Science, Freie Universität Berlin.

Notes

1 In distinguishing the national, European, and international level, the local level gets incorporated in the national one. It would be a separate but quite interesting question why there is much less work on the politicization of local politics.

2 We have chosen cosmopolitanism and communitarianism – terms with roots in recognized and respected political–philosophical traditions – in order to emphasize that current conflicts may not be temporary ones between modern and atavistic factions in society, but a much more permanent cleavage inspired by two opposing political ideologies.

3 Of course, this does not exclude the fact that, to find answers for particular questions, one needs to focus on the politicization on a specific level.