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ABSTRACT
Beginning with a critical discussion of Max Weber’s concept of legitimate rule, this article explores the interplay between national and transnational democracy, the authoritarian degeneration of many democratic states such as Hungary, often with a rhetoric of national sovereignty, and the prospects for extending transnational democracy in the European Union. Europe is trusted more than their national state by most Europeans, but governance at both levels is threatened by populist challenges.
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Notes
1. Since completing this article I have been able to read two further useful sources: (Maley Citation2023, Palonen Citation2023). My thanks to Tom Kemple for drawing my attention to this volume.
2. My thanks to Mark Haugaard for encouraging some clarification of this paragraph, also to David Thompson and Simon Susen for comments on an earlier version of this paper, which I presented (virtually, for personal reasons) at a conference on Max Weber in Moscow in September 2021 and, in a related form, at a student conference at the University of Witten/Herdecke. My thanks also for these invitations and the discussion. I fear that, even if Russia returns to peace and democracy, its rehabilitation will take a similar time to that of post-war Germany – perhaps half a century.
3. On Weber’s general concept of selection, see, for example: „every type of social order … must, if one wishes to evaluate it, be examined with reference to what human type it best enables … to become dominant.“ (Weber Citation1911/Citation[1922] 1968, p. 517 f.; tr. Weber 2011, p. 27. (translation modified) See also the section on ‚struggle‘ (Kampf) early in Economy and Society (1, 8), p. 117 in the new translation by Keith Tribe.
4. Turner (Citation2022, p. 136, 146) notes Weber’s relative tolerance in relation to demagogy, as exemplified by William Gladstone. ’ See also (Baehr Citation2004, Citation2008) on Caesarism and charisma, and (Whimster Citation2022)on its relation to Boris Johnson.
5. See for example (Huskey Citation2016).
6. A Goldwater campaign slogan in 1964, was ‘In your heart you know he’s right’, countered by his opponent LBJ’s ‘In your guts you know he’s nuts’.
7. On NPM see also (Crouch Citation2017).
9. See Fodor in Femia et al. 2009. More recently, Fodor has published a systematic discussion of ‘The Orbán Rule: https://hungarianspectrum.org/2021/05/06/a-new-book-on-viktor-orban-gabor-g-fodors-the-orban-rule/.
See also for example (Mulder Citation2021).
11. On the history of the concept „transnational“ see (Jessup Citation1956; also Bohman Citation2007, Green Citation2019, ch. 2, Körner Citation2017, Amelina Citation2021, Deutschmann Citation2021). On the domestic politics of the US and Western and Southern Europe, see (Hopkin Citation2020).
12. Gideon Rachman, in the Financial Times 22.7.09, cites Reginald Dale: ‘Kissinger never made the famous remark about Europe’s telephone number. According to the late Peter Rodman, who knew him well, the saying is apocryphal, and in fact Kissinger’s concern was the precise opposite – he was fed up with having to deal with a Dane whom he regarded as incompetent and ineffective, who was trying to represent the whole of the EU as President of the Council. Kissinger himself has disowned the remark, and it seems that he was actually seeking to divide and rule in Europe, rather than be restricted to a single voice on the telephone.’
https://www.ft.com/content/c4c1e0cd-f34a-3b49-985f-e708b247eb55.
13. A textbook (Ginsberg Citation2007) has the title ‘Demystifying the European Union’.
14. This is part of the explanation of the ongoing conflict with the UK government, which repeatedly violated domestic constitutional law (such as it is) and international law. In Scotland, law is taken more seriously than in England and Wales, and Scottish lawyers tend to mock the English doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. The UK parliament is theoretically ‘supreme’, but in practice a rubber-stamp for a government such as Johnson’s which had a secure majority.
16. See (Outhwaite Citation2020, Storey Citation2020).
17. On Zürn, see Scholte 2021.
18. The European Coal and Steel Community was created as much for political as for economic reasons (as Robert Schuman put it, to make war between France and Germany ‘materially impossible’.) (Börzel and Risse Citation2020, p. 24).
19. On deliberative democracy on a national scale, see Rapeli and Koskimaa 2020. On the EU. see Alemanno 2020.
20. On the likelihood of a break-up of the UK, see for example the Financial Times series in April 2021 (3,5,7).
21. Schmidt (Citation2020a, Citation2020b, Citation2022) has subsequently revised this model to take account of the return of fundamental policy conflict.
22. See the exchange with Carles Boix, Perspectives on Politics 18(2): 545–50. For a more informal presentation of a similar argument see Glassman 2019.
23. As Peter Wagner et al. (Citation2021) has pointed out, we need to ask why national politicians did not respond adequately to this phenomenon. On the EU, see Patel 2005 for an analysis which is still relevant.
24. See https://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/index.cfm/Survey/getSurveyDetail/instruments/standard/yearFrom/1974/yearTo/2020/surveyKy/2262 See also Flash Eurobarometer 485 (2020) page 7, on European Union Citizenship and Democracy, in which over three quarters of respondents said that they would be more likely to vote if they had more information about the role of the EU, the programmes and candidates, etc. https://www.politico.eu/article/survey-trust-in-eu-has-increased-while-trust-in-national-government-has-dropped-coronavirus-pandemic/ On some issues around trust and transparency see however (Field and Roberts Citation2020).
25. For a recent report on European youth views of democracy, see (Lolacher and Véritier Citation2021).
26. The article by Follesdal and Hix (Citation2006) is still worth reading. See also Vauchez 2016.
28. See also Cann 2021: https://socialeurope.eu/business-lobbies-offered-privileged-access-to-secretive-eu-council-group.
29. In a case in 2007, the European Court of Justice reiterated that ‘it is for the Member States to ensure judicial protection of the individual’s rights under Community law’. The EU can also act directly against Member States which violate the rule of law, but with difficulty because of the requirement of unanimity, which means that two such states can shelter each other.
30. RND RedaktionsNetwork Deutschland, cited in ‘Weimarer Republik’, Informationen zur politischen Bildung 346, 1/2021, p. 79.
31. See for example (Lolacher and Véritier Citation2021).
32. There is an interesting defence of the idea of open democracy in (Laden Citation2022).
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Notes on contributors
William Outhwaite
William Outhwaite, FAcSS, is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Newcastle University, where he taught from 2007 to 2015, following thirty-four years at the University of Sussex. He has published extensively on critical realism, social theory (especially critical theory) and contemporary Europe, and is currently co-editing books on teaching political sociology and on Habermas.