Richard Münch - European Governmentality: The Liberal Drift of Multilevel Governance

This book contributes to the literature on the change of governance in the context of its European multilevel organization. The integration of Europe is a process of fundamental social change: a process of constructing a European society and of deconstructing the national societies.

Mnch demonstrates that there is a movement away from republican and representative features of a democracy and towards liberal and pluralistic features. The book illustrates this change in the nature of European political regulation, European jurisdiction and the intellectual debates in France, Germany and Britain on legitimizing the emerging system of multilevel governance. He discusses how far the new European regime of liberal governmentality converges with the American type of constitutional liberalism. Following a sociological approach, the book focuses on identifying the causes, features and consequences of the fundamental social change taking place in the process of European integration.

This book will be of interest to scholars and graduate students from political science, sociology, law and philosophy interested in political theory, comparative politics, international relations and political communication, as well as practitioners of policy-making in governments, administration, parties, associations and the media.

Richard Mnch is Professor of Sociology at Bamberg University, Germany. He is Associate Editor of the journal Sociological Theory. His most recent publications include Nation and Citizenship in the Global Age and The Ethics of Modernity.

Edited by Federica Bicchi, London School of Economics and Political Science, Tanja Brzel, Free University of Berlin, and Roger Scully, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, on behalf of the University Association for Contemporary European Studies

Editorial Board: Grainne De Brca, European University Institute and Columbia University; Andreas Fllesdal, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo; Peter Holmes, University of Sussex; Liesbet Hooghe, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; David Phinnemore, Queens University Belfast; Mark Pollack, Temple University; Ben Rosamond, University of Warwick; Vivien Ann Schmidt, University of Boston; Jo Shaw, University of Edinburgh; Mike Smith, University of Loughborough; and Loukas Tsoukalis, ELIAMEP, University of Athens and European University Institute.

The primary objective of the new Contemporary European Studies series is to provide a research outlet for scholars of European Studies from all disciplines. The series publishes important scholarly works and aims to forge for itself an international reputation.

The Liberal drift of multilevel governance

First published 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
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This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.

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2010 Richard Mnch

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Mnch, Richard, 1945
European governmentality: the liberal drift of multilevel governance / Richard Mnch.
p. cm.(Routledge/UACES contemporary European studies; 14)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Federal governmentEuropean Union countries. 2.
LiberalismEuropean Union countries. 3. LawEuropean Union
countries. 4. European Union. 5. European Union countries
Politics and government. I. Title.
JN30.M866 2010
320.44049dc22
2009049407

ISBN 0-203-85048-3 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN: 9780415485814 (hbk)

ISBN: 9780203850480 (ebk)

This book is based on my more extensive study Die Konstruktion der europischen Gesellschaft, which appeared in German in fall 2008. A shorter version of was published under the title Constructing a European Society by Jurisdiction in the European Law Journal 14 (5), 2008: 519{-}41. When writing the book I profited from collaborating with a number of helpful people. The doctoral program Markets and Social Systems in Europe is mainly an interdisciplinary setting at the University of Bamberg, Germany. The program covers sociology, political science, law, economics and management science and is funded by the German Research Foundation. I am grateful to all the colleagues and students involved in this program for providing such an excellent environment for my research. For their assistance in carrying out this study, I would like to thank especially Cline Morin, Sven Weber and Viola Geberzahn, who contributed reports on the intellectual debates on Europe in France, Germany and Britain, which formed the basis of the chapters on the French, German and British dilemmas of constructing Europe. Brigitte Mnzel and Benjamin Wilson helped to translate the chapters from German into English. Brigitte Mnzel, Margrit Seuling and Andrea Gehring assisted in the technical production of the book. Many thanks to all of them.