European Virtual Politics

Hooghe and Marks’ update of Rokkanian European cleavages recognises the existence of a European political arena with opposite poles. The paper first contrasts rhetorics on a European level by two European Council members at opposite poles, the French President E. Macron and the Hungarian President V...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: German Carboni
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Ksiegarnia Akademicka Publishing 2019-12-01
Series:Politeja
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.akademicka.pl/politeja/article/view/1310
Description
Summary:Hooghe and Marks’ update of Rokkanian European cleavages recognises the existence of a European political arena with opposite poles. The paper first contrasts rhetorics on a European level by two European Council members at opposite poles, the French President E. Macron and the Hungarian President V. Orbán, then it compares their immigration policies on a national level. While a vast difference can be detected in the rhetorical dimension, their national regulations and executive decisions on immigration are stunningly similar. Such discrepancies are explained through an institutional analysis of the European Council, which gives structural incentives to perform “virtual politics” consisting of statements aimed at gathering domestic support against virtual “opponents”, while avoiding any political risky decisions at home. Furthermore, as theneoliberal nature of the EU incentivizes the status quo in this area, only pro-found institutional reform can lay the ground for a change.
ISSN:1733-6716
2391-6737