Forschung & Projekte
Prof. Dr. Dawid Friedrich
Current projects
1. CAPRIGHT: Fundamental Rights in the European Union: Resources, rights and capabilities: in search of social foundations for Europe
CAPRIGHT is funded unter the EU’s 6th framework programme gefördert (CIT 4, Vertragsnummer 028549) from January 2007 until December 2010. CAPRIGHT comprises 24 european and extra-European partners from 12 countries. It is coordinated by Robert Salais, Ecole normale supérieure de Cachan, France.
Responsible:
Prof. Dr. Patrizia Nanz
Jun. Prof. Dr. Dawid Friedrich
Abstract:
This project is part of the European research network CAPRIGHT "Resources, Rights and Capabilites: In search of social foundations for Europe". CAPRIGHT argues that the development of a social democracy in Europe depends on the socio-economic capabilities of individual and collective actors; it demands to enhance the capability structures independent from the location of residence and workplace. The Capability-Approach, which is fundamental to CAPRIGHT, emphasises i.a. the relevance of fundamental rights al important cornerstones of an enabling capability structure. Fundamental rights are understood as the possession of freedom rights as well as of political and social rights, as they collapse in the modern concept of citizenship in the democratic nation-state. There, individual citizens possess encompassing freedom rights (i.a. freedom of speech), are enabled to participate in collective decision-making, and are entitled to social benefits. The transformation of the nation-state in the wake of European integration as well as the emergent structures of a postnational constellation challenge this endowment with fundamental rights, because the development of postnational fundamental rights lag behind the economic de-territorialisation. Europe has not yet acquired a democratic citizenship. This project assesses the influence of the European Court of Justices litigation of the development of elements of a democratic union citizenship. In particular, it focuses on the case law on freedom of movement of persons, arguing that this fundamental freedom is a trigger for the development of Europe-wide social and political rights.
2. Book project: “The Principle of Democratic Representation in a Globalising World: A Gap in the Governance Literature?”
Responsible:
Prof. Dr. Dawid Friedrich (Leuphana Universität Lüneburg)
Dr. Sandra Kröger (Jean Monnet Zentrum für Europäische Studien (CEuS), Universität Bremen)
Furthermore, there are colleagues involved from ten different European countries.For September 2010 we plan an authors workshop at the ZDEMO, Leuphana University Lueneburg.
Abstract:
“The Principle of Democratic Representation in a Globalising World: A Gap in the Governance Literature?”
The number of academic publications on European and Global Governance (EGG) gives witness to the growing importance of supra-, trans- and international arenas in which an increasing amount of political decisions are made beyond the boundaries of the modern nation-state. In this context, democratic representation is said to be weakened through processes of de-nationalisation and de-parliamentarisation. Traditionally, relations between representatives and represented were embedded in the framework of the nation-state. However, the increasing mobility of capital, people, services and goods and the emergence of influential trans- and international actors made state borders more permeable, challenging the role of the traditional political actors and spaces of government.
In possible remedies of a perceived deficit of democratic legitimacy in governance processes, the literature has given particular attention to the concepts of deliberation and participation, while largely neglecting the concept of democratic representation and with it the familiar agents of representative democracies, above all parliaments and political parties. Instead, in the face of a perceived legitimacy crisis of Western democracies, of welfare retrenchment in Western democracies as well as of peaceful revolutions in Eastern Europe, civil society has gained widespread attention. The particular role, however, which civil society should play in politics – that of having a voice or of having a vote? – remains contested, and no demands for representation were articulated against civil society organisations (CSOs). Overall, there are only few accounts in EGG-research about how the people, which are the ultimate addressees of political decisions, are or could be the ultimate authors of decisions made in governance processes and which role the principle of democratic representation should and could play.
This situation has most recently begun to change. Research has started to acknowledge the importance of democratic representation as a necessity for legitimacy at all levels of political action. The proposed workshop wants to contribute to this introduction of representation into governance research. We argue that even in a changing political environment, we need to separate analytically (a) what political representation is, and (b) how the institutional instances of it look like. Representation has traditionally been seen as a trustee or delegate relationship between voters and elected representatives. If representation is now increasingly separated from (national) electoral representation, this raises the question of appropriately defining constituencies and the accurate means to represent those constituencies. Also, these changes seem to imply the need to address the dynamic character of the claim-making processes and the role the different actors involved in that claim-making play. Since political representation is by definition context-dependent, there is no unique answer as to how this dynamic relationship can be defined in EGG.
The beginning attention governance research attributes to representation also mirrors the fact that different actors have made some moves towards including the issue of representation in their practices. Examples are international organisations such as the EU which request the (territorial) representativeness of CSOs; CSOs that have started to react to these demands by considering standards of representativeness and accountability; parliaments that adopt formal rules and informal practices to come to terms with the challenges of globalising politics; parliamentarians which increasingly interact in transnational networks, both issue specific and more encompassing ones, which sometimes explicitly aim at closing the gap between parliamentarians and civil society. In short, representation has commenced to be re-discovered as a necessity for democratic legitimacy by both scholars and practitioners, and this project seeks to contribute to the discussion about democratic representation and European and global governance.
Finalized Projects:
Finalized in 2008:
PhD dissertation on "Deliberative Participation in Europe. Organised Civil Society in the European Union’s policy processes"
Supervisory Board: Prof. Dr. Patrizia Nanz (InIIS), Prof. Dr. Markus Jachtenfuchs, (Hertie School of Governance), Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wessels (Universität Köln)
Accepted for publication by Manchester University Press, Series „Europe in Change“. To be published in 2010.