A Democratic European Union: What does it mean? A discourse analysis of two debates on the Conference on the Future of Europe in the European Parliament
Author
Summary, in English
The question of the European Union’s (EU) democratic legitimacy has been a crucial issue at all stages of the European integration process. With crises of economic, social and democratic nature, trust in the EU institutions is questioned by citizens, providing a vacuum between expectations and results and a ‘democratic deficit’. This context has urged European politicians to propose solutions to the EU’s democracy problem.
This dissertation aims to explore the role of language in the construction of a democratic European Union. To do so, two parliamentary debates on the EU’s latest democracy exercise will be analysed, i.e., the debates of the 15 January 2020 and 17 June 2020 Conference on the Future of Europe. In this analysis, we will look at the different ways in which Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) talk about the European project and their interpretations of what constitutes a democratic European Union today.
Considering the humanistic tradition, this study will analyse the language use of MEPs and is built on a social constructivist and interpretivist premise, using discourse theory, and conducting a linguistic analysis based on the methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). This study is interested in analysing how human agents in possession of social power interact, produce discourses and shape the commonly understood meaning of the world.
As a result of the discourse analysis conducted on the selected data, three discourses of a democratic European Union have been identified: a European Union of Sovereign Nations, a Citizen’s European Union and a European Union as an International Actor. In terms of the legitimation strategies used for the arguments, the three discourses can be characterized differently, having different potential implications on the construction of a European identity. The results of the paper provide an important entry point to the discussion on a democratic
European Union and the future of European integration.
This dissertation aims to explore the role of language in the construction of a democratic European Union. To do so, two parliamentary debates on the EU’s latest democracy exercise will be analysed, i.e., the debates of the 15 January 2020 and 17 June 2020 Conference on the Future of Europe. In this analysis, we will look at the different ways in which Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) talk about the European project and their interpretations of what constitutes a democratic European Union today.
Considering the humanistic tradition, this study will analyse the language use of MEPs and is built on a social constructivist and interpretivist premise, using discourse theory, and conducting a linguistic analysis based on the methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). This study is interested in analysing how human agents in possession of social power interact, produce discourses and shape the commonly understood meaning of the world.
As a result of the discourse analysis conducted on the selected data, three discourses of a democratic European Union have been identified: a European Union of Sovereign Nations, a Citizen’s European Union and a European Union as an International Actor. In terms of the legitimation strategies used for the arguments, the three discourses can be characterized differently, having different potential implications on the construction of a European identity. The results of the paper provide an important entry point to the discussion on a democratic
European Union and the future of European integration.
Department/s
Publishing year
2021
Language
English
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Document type
Student publication for Master's degree (two years)
Topic
- Languages and Literatures
Keywords
- Democracy
- Legitimacy
- Discourse
- European Parliament
- Future of Europe
- European studies
- democratic deficit.
Supervisor
- Kristian Steiner