RC03 - European Unification

The EU is a joint venture of almost thirty member states run by administrators in the bureaucracies of the Union and the member states, as well as politicians in the European Commission and Parliament with those in national governments and parliaments. As members of the Euro elite they all resemble each other but there are also huge differences that matter when the future of the Union and often even the globe is negotiated between them. Therefore, it is reasonable for scholars to ask questions such as the following:
• How do politicians and administrators differ with regard to their habitus and typical approach when they go about the daily business of doing their work?
• How do administrators or politicians differ from each other depending on whether they are involved in the administration of the Union or one of the member states?
• How do the administrative and political cultures and styles differ depending on the actors’ country of origin?
• How does the politician’s or administrator’s country of origin affect her relative position among colleagues from other member states?
• How does gender affect relative positionings?
• Are there differences with regard to social class in the background of politicians and administrators, and do these differences vary according to nation?
• How do different educational institutions contribute to the differences?
• What is the role of political parties?
• What are the other important networks and are there national differences in access to the networks and/or their relevance for the smooth advancement of professional tasks?
• What kind of relations the Euro elite has to other elites and is there national or other kind of variation in these relations?
• What is the relation of the Euro elite to the media and the outside society in general?

Papers dealing with these or similar questions in the context of one or more member states of the EU are called for to set up a debate covering as many member states as possible. Methods of study may be quantitative, qualitative, or mixed. Anything goes as long as the paper has a contribution to make.