From Elitist Project to Mass Politics: Challenges of Politicization to European Integration

Abstract

The current recession has stimulated the politicization of the economic regulation in the EU and has brought about a change in the priorities of European integration. European identity landmarks emerge amid a growing interdependence of the European and divergent national political agendas and a “conflictual Europeanization” of mass politics. Protest publics have come to the forefront of European politics, and a conspicuous rise of the voters support for hybrid anti-establishment parties repudiating traditional politics demonstrates a cumulative effect of dissatisfaction and frustration in both national and European political institutions. Hence a growing support for Eurosceptics in the 2014 European parliamentary elections. As the Greek crisis and the results of the following national elections in Greece testify, the politicization of European integration through contentious politics can be regarded as an answer to the growing alienation of the political and institutional design of contemporary Europe from its social roots. Social welfare, alongside political democracy and a Christian heritage, remains a pillar of a common European identity. Contentious politics break into this political space in diverse, often populist and brutal forms, and point to the need to rethink existing stereotypes about politics and everyday life, about the changing motivation of political action and the changing nature of political actors. Europe faces the necessity to adapt its institutions both to the challenges of effective policies and of democratic politics. The on-going politicization processes can contribute to this end, on condition that the European political elite is capable to face this challenge.