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Palgrave Macmillan

Democracy Without Politics in EU Citizen Participation

From European Demoi to Decolonial Multitude

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Alvaro Oleart

    1. Dept. of Political Sci. and Inst. for European studies, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

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  • Puts forward a diagnosis of current debates on EU democratic legitimacy as well as proposing an alternative, anchored in the idea of the ‘decolonial multitude’ as a democratising political imaginary
  • Critically analyses the EU's 'citizen turn' and the way in which the Conference on the Future of Europe unfolded, including its follow-up
  • Contrasts the ‘democracy without politics’ approach of the EU in the context of the Conference on the Future of Europe with that of ongoing transnational activist processes

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology (PSEPS)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Passive Revolutions and the Future of the EU: Democratic Theorising and the ‘Decolonial Multitude’

    • Alvaro Oleart
    Pages 1-24

  3. From European Demoi to the Decolonial Multitude: Democratising the EU’s Political Imaginary

    • Alvaro Oleart
    Pages 25-68

  4. The Genealogy of the ‘Citizen Turn’ in the EU: The European Citizen Consultations, the Citizen Dialogues and the Antipolitical Imaginary

    • Alvaro Oleart
    Pages 69-92

  5. Democracy Without Politics in the Conference on the Future of Europe: The Political Architecture, Process and Recommendations

    • Alvaro Oleart
    Pages 93-120

  6. Individualised Technodeliberation in the CoFoE European Citizens’ Panels: The Presence of the Absence of the European Demoi

    • Alvaro Oleart
    Pages 121-162

  7. The Institutional ‘Success’ of the CoFoE via the ‘New Generation’ Citizen Panels: The European Commission Leads the Public-Private ‘Citizen Turn’

    • Alvaro Oleart
    Pages 163-203

  8. “The Lost Art of Organising Solidarity”: Articulating the Decolonial Multitude in the EU (and Beyond)

    • Alvaro Oleart
    Pages 205-234

  9. The Contrast Between the EU’s Technocratic Conception of ‘Citizen Participation’ and the Democratic Pluralism of the Decolonial Multitude

    • Alvaro Oleart
    Pages 235-264

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 265-270
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Keywords

About this book

How does the dominant understanding(s) of the demo(i)cratic subject in the EU, and of democracy more broadly, shape the EU’s democratic innovations on ‘citizen participation’? What are the politically and normatively preferable alternatives, both in terms of the conceptualisation of the democratic subject in the EU and in the ensuing political practices? The book addresses these questions combining a political theory with a political sociology perspective, contrasting the ‘democracy without politics’ approach of the EU in the context of the Conference on the Future of Europe with that of ongoing transnational activist processes. In doing so, it develops an agonistic alternative to ‘the people(s)’ as the political imaginary of democracy in the EU, which is based on the idea of the ‘decolonial multitude’. Thus, the book puts forward a diagnosis of current debates on EU democratic legitimacy as well as proposing an alternative.

Reviews

“Through the original and powerful concept of the ‘decolonial multitude’, Oleart provides an empirically grounded critique of the ‘citizen-turn’ in European politics. A key innovation is that the book compares initiatives around the Conference on the Future of Europe with potentially more hopeful alternatives involving transnational political activism. This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in how democracy in the European Union could and should (not) be advanced.” (Jan Orbie, Professor, Ghent University, Belgium)

“If you want to understand how we might move from political passivity to unlock decolonial and revolutionary action at a European scale, this is a book for you.” (Niccolò Milanese, European Alternatives)

“Combining innovative democratic theory with empirically rich narratives, Oleart has found an ingenious way of contrasting the depoliticized nature of the EU’s ‘citizen turn’ with fully politicized transnational social movements. A real tour de force and a must-read for all those interested in the question of how to democratize the EU.” (Vivien A. Schmidt, Boston University, United States)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Dept. of Political Sci. and Inst. for European studies, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Alvaro Oleart

About the author

Alvaro Oleart is a researcher at the Department of Political Science and the Institute for European Studies of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. He is the author of Framing TTIP in the European  Public  Spheres: Towards  an  Empowering  Dissensus  for  EU  integration (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) also published in the Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology series.


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