Управленческая ментальность и формирование публичного разума в Европейском Союзе

Through the (de)(re)construction of the conduct of conduct, we as political scientists are searching for the formula to create the perfect system and the perfect citizen. However, as political systems are changing, our job, as the mechanics of the system, is changing as well. The technical and geographical borders of the nation state are eroding; the number of actors able to participate in the construction of the conduct of conduct, consciously or unconsciously, has been growing.
The problematics of the 21st century, issues of humanity, political systems and structures of governance; the emergence of power structures beyond the state result in the need to update theory, to ensure that it could be translated into practice; changes occur while humans are still catching up with the last changes; from digital and technological solutions to an online civilization, from traditional media to new media, social media and social networks. The digitalised world led to the rise of new alterations regarding news, information and (democratic) participation; people want information fast, accurate, at the right place and the right time, and have become even more vulnerable to manipulation. At the same time, there has been a shift from a time in which argumentation was based on facts, to a time in which argumentation is based on the anticipation of emotions and beliefs; the border between objectivity and subjectivity is eroding, interpreted based on intersubjectivity; our truth. Have we entered an era in which Doxa and Gnosis replace Episteme, or is a post-truth our new Endoxa?
I argue that, this very issue, is being anticipated on, there is a shift in the political, following this general trend, the one that could be described as despicable, (political) actors are left no other choice but to walk the path of the post-truth era, entering a forest, of which the landscape has not been visualised yet, but could be manipulated at, the moment in which you think you figured out the rules of the game. The question who determines the rules of the game in a post-truth era is a rhetorical one; it is identity politics, offering another one, explanation, creation, interpretation, and categorisation: us vs. them. The point is that, an increasing number of actors have been enabled to enter the stage, from which the reality of an average citizen is being presented. Shaping the reality of citizens and creating the ideal citizen is a core function carried out by a national government, each having their own culture and perception of what is right and wrong, and deciding what mechanisms, tools and technologies are employed in doing so. Considering our (online) civilisation, citizen and watch-dog organisations, customer-driven government-citizens relations, the nature of politics itself is changing, or are we on our way back to Ancient Greece, where “everyone”, those who were considered to be part of the in-group allowed to participate, should directly participate in the public political forum? Throughout time, different systems developed, collapsed, changed, or have even been combined. Taking into consideration that in political science, there is still being looked for all-encompassing approaches towards the state, power, legitimacy, the political, the aim of this study is to contribute to the discussion of these concepts, in an implicit way, by focusing on governmentality and public reason in the European Union, a structure about which there is much to say; from the Coal and Steel Industry into a Value Enforcing Machinery.
The European Union. A union, consisting out of 27 Member States, 24 official languages, twenty-seven histories, cultural traditions, political landscapes. The co- existence of these differences has been referred to by Rawls (1997) as comprehensive doctrines, or reasonable pluralism. Public unrest, deeply rooted in the divergent histories, triggered by the four freedoms, the Euro-crisis, Brexit. The European Union in all of its shapes goes against the traditional conception of the nation state, referring to the Westphalian System (1648) (McCormick, 2015). Democratic standards and values are at the core of mutual agreement on the common understanding of all Member States about how the EU should function, and which criteria a prospective Member State should meet. As the EU moved far beyond the purpose of an international organisation and cannot be categorised as a sovereign state, questions have been raised about its legitimacy, democracy, transparency and accountability. The European Union started as an economic and peace project, of which the ultimate dream was to create the Federation of the European Union, or the United States of Europe. However, with the replacement of the federal goal by an ever-closer Union, it became even less clear what the end state of this project was ought to be. Some argue that the EU only works in practice, from (quasi-)federalism, confederalism, (neo)functionalism, (liberal) intergovernmentalism, many more, still, no one has succeeded to make the EU work in theory, as it works in practice. The European Union started as a Coal and Steel Community (1952), and grew into what some call, an unidentifiable political object (UPO), or a system in its own right, or what I call, a value enforcing machinery. Throughout the years, the EU went through different stages of regional and economic integration, revolving all around the Single Market: from Rome, to the Single European Act, to Maastricht, to Amsterdam, Nice, and finally, to Lisbon (2007). The Single European Act (1986), set the goal for the completion of the internal market by 1993, paving the way for political integration and the economic and monetary Union. In these transformations, with an eye on expansion, the Copenhagen Criteria (1993) were adopted, to ensure the compliance of new Member States with political, economic and institutional standards. The EU that is known today was established in the same year, with the Maastricht Treaty; replacing the federal goal by an ever-closer Union, establishing the concept of European identity and Union citizenship. The EU is all about promoting peace, its values, and the well-being of its people. The principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law form the foundation in constructing (the future of) Europe.
European integration: refers to the process of the further development of the European Union since the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) (1952). There are different approaches towards the study of the EU, the most popular approaches include: federalism, (neo)functionalism, (liberal) intergovernmentalism, multi-level governance.