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Just finished Perry Anderson's 'Ever Closer Union?' in the @LRB. This is much more specific on policy processes (as opposed to ideologies) than the first part a couple of weeks ago. 'All-purpose Brussels fixer' @piris_jc gets a shoutout, too. (1/11)THREAD https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n01/perry-anderson/ever-closer-union
Anderson rightly emphasises the role of law and of lawyers in and for European integration. He is, like German constitutional lawyers in particular (e.g. Dieter Grimm, but cf. also Thomas Horsley in the UK), quite critical of the powers of the CJEU. (2/11)
I found Anderson's discussion of continuties to the 'Nazi new order' (especially as far as the first generation of European judges and bureaucrats are concerned) especially interesting and important, engaging with @HistVeraFritz 's landmark work: http://legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2018/03/fritz-on-judges-and-advocates-general.html (3/11)
The surprising absence here is any discussion of the continuities of economic structures and networks, first emphasised by John Gillingham, but also in recent discussions about 'anti-liberal European integration' cf. https://zeithistorische-forschungen.de/3-2012 (4/11)
Unlike Adam Tooze and others he sees the fault with austerity (Greece etc) primarily with the Commission and the set-up of the ECB rather than with Germany, although he emphasises the importance of the German-French duopoly for the development of the EU in elsewhere. (5/11)
Across Anderson's two essays I found two absences especially striking (will there be a third part?): 1) the Cold War context for the development of European integration, as emphasised by Piers Ludlow in particular. (6/11)
2) The importance of the EU's external borders for constituting the EU as a polity - and the importance of the context for colonialism and decolonisation for its constitution (cf. Kiran Patel's brilliant Project Europe, cited by Anderson, on Greenland and Algeria) (7/11)
That external aspect has at least three elements: the policy context (development aid), emphasised by Giuliano Garavini...personal and bureaucratic aspects, as stressed by Véronique Dimier https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230300002 & practical aspects as discussed e.g. by Bigo and Silja Klepp(8/11)
Interesting throughout: Italy appears mainly has the spoiler of due process, but also has a state that contributes creative, tghozh in Anderson's interpretation, often unlawful solution. No appreciation of Italy's fundamental importance for European integration. (9/11)
Anderson's conclusions are rather pessimistic and not far off from diagnosing a complete failure and likely collapse. Striking for me: Anderson's inability to conceptualise and theorise a quasi-state polity beyond the nation-state.This is surprising because Anderson's work(10/11)
Lineages of the Absolutist State is supposed to be about state building. But does his tradition perhaps have a problem conceptualising governance beyond the nation state and beyond the *trans*-national currents of trade and finance? END
