Title: How does the EU tick? Five propositions on political time
Abstract: Abstract In what manner is political time institutionalized in the political system of the EU? This article advances five propositions on political time in the EU and highlights their implications for the workings of the EU. The propositions stress: (i) the absence of a dominant EU political cycle, which creates problems of mobilization and synchronization, but also allows for temporal plurality; (ii) an emphasis on linear political time, associated with ongoingness and open-endedness, as opposed to cyclical political time, which favours discontinuity in institutional practices and policies; (iii) intensive bargaining over time-setting, which encourages governing by timetable; (iv) the sensitivity of EU political time to member state influence, on the one hand, and (v) the Europeanization of political time in the member states, on the other. The balances struck in the temporal constitution of the EU are critical to its future. Keywords: CyclesEUEuropeanizationpolitical timetemporal pluralitytimetables ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the following for their most helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper: Graham Avery, Simon Bulmer, Simon Hix, Laszlo Kovats, Anand Menon, Johan P. Olsen, Jan-Hinrik Meyer-Sahling, Christopher Pollitt, Richard Rose and Annika Werner. The usual disclaimer applies. Notes I owe this term to Philippe Schmitter. In contrast to what is suggested here, Ekengren (2002) Ekengren, M. 2002. The Time of European Governance, Manchester: Manchester University Press. [Google Scholar], in his analysis of EU time, stresses the cyclic character of EU time. He associates this quality, in particular, with recurringness: 'the meeting rhythms and decision-making procedures shaping time practices recur on a very regular basis over time' (Ekengren 2002 Ekengren, M. 2002. The Time of European Governance, Manchester: Manchester University Press. [Google Scholar]: 143). In my view, this dense, regular, open-ended scheduling is, by contrast, an expression of the linearity of EU time; for it to be cyclical, it would need to be marked by clear beginnings and ends to established sequences of actions or events. Instead, the timetables that Ekengren has analysed so insightfully are mostly open-ended and not linked to specific points in time – the start of one cycle, the beginning of another – at which basic change (in participants, preferences and priorities) is likely to occur.
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-02-13
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 87
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