John Erik Fossum

John Erik Fossum explores the reasons for the federal government's intervention in the energy industry between 1973 and 1984 and shows how its initial objectives failed, culminating in the privatization of Petro-Canada in 1990.

The Rise and Demise of Petro-Canada as a Statist Impulse

Oil, the State, and Federalism

Modern states - and novel multinational polities such as the European Union - have to contend with greater degrees, and more complex forms, of diversity. What elements keep complex, «post-national», political entities together? What are the ties that bind people together in a world where they cannot rely on the safety of established national identifications (if they ever could)? This collection of essays by leading political scientists, philosophers and legal academics from Canada and Europe provides a transatlantic dialogue on the ways in which complex states (such as Canada) and non-states (the EU) may broach the modes of difference and diversity that confront them. Authors engage in insightful «diagnoses» of contemporary forms and modes of diversity, as well as critical appraisals of a number of normative responses meant to answer these challenges. These responses range from «reasonable accommodation» and multinationalism to cosmopolitanism. They include the recognition of «post-national», «multinational» or «deterritorialised» democracy and constitutional patriotism, as well as plural or «denationalised» citizenship.

Accommodating Diversity in Canada and the European Union

The Ties that Bind

Keith Battarbee

In recent decades, and in particular as a result of global climate change, the significance of the Arctic has radically shifted, from a remote periphery to a region of intensifying political and academic interest and of conflicting interests.&ltBR> This collection of texts examines in particular how national and international politics and law impact on Arctic governance, communications and indigenous rights; and in parallel, explores perceptions and experiences of the North in literature and the dramatic arts. The book thus offers a platform for cross-disciplinary dialogue, in order to highlight that the Arctic is too multi-faceted and complex for any one discipline or approach adequately to encompass.

The Arctic Contested

Erik Oddvar Eriksen

The EU is a supranational organization, whose reach and influence extends well beyond its member states, especially to the many states that have signed various forms of association agreement with it. This book asks whether qualifying states who have eschewed EU membership experience negative effects on their legal and political self-governing abilities, or whether they manage their independence with few such effects. It explores the idea that the closer the affiliation a non-member state has with the EU, the more susceptible to hegemony the relationship appears to be. In addition, the book provides an overview of the total range of agreements the EU has with non-member states. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of in EU/European studies, Scandinavian studies, European and comparative politics, international relations, and democratization studies.

Independence under hegemony?

The European Union's Non-Members

Philip R. Schlesinger

The European Union is often attacked for its ‘democratic deficit’, namely its deficiencies in representation, transparency and accountability, as well as its lack of popular support. Can these shortcomings be counteracted by the development of a viable European public sphere? This book assesses the possible formation of a communicative space that might enable and engender the creation of a transnational or a supranational public. The contributors consider the EU’s democratic credentials and how well it communicates, and they also evaluate the major institutions and their links to general publics. The European Union and the Public Sphere emphasizes a ‘deliberative democratic’ perspective on the public sphere, addressing some key questions: • What are the prospects for a European public sphere? • Should we think in terms of the EU having a single public sphere, or are overlapping public spheres a more viable option? • What do this book’s findings on the question of the public sphere tell us about the EU as a political entity? Students and scholars of European democracy, political communication, and the politics of institutions will all be greatly interested by this book.

A Communicative Space in the Making?

The European Union and the Public Sphere

Jozef Bátora

This book makes a distinctive contribution to the crucial debate on the European Union (EU)’s present and future development. It systematically examines how the range of crises and challenges over the last decade have transformed the EU and relates those findings to the discussion of an increasingly differentiated EU. It argues that the post-crises EU shows clear signs of becoming a segmented political order with in-built biases and constraints. The book spells out the key features of such an order in ideational and structural terms and shows how it more concretely manifests itself in the EU’s institutional and constitutional make-up and in how member states constrain and condition EU action. Different states impose different types of constraints, as is underlined through paying explicit attention to the Visegrád countries. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of EU politics/studies, European integration and politics, East European politics and foreign policy.

John Erik Fossum

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