Is the Correlation Between the Governance Crisis and

Rising Nationalism Deteriorating European Regional

Environment?

Challenges in Global Affairs, Final Project – OECD Challenge

2

1 - INTRODUCTION

The proliferation of Nationalistic tones in the European Union countries in the past few years

intensified the debate around these phenomena. The current literature broadly relates it with

Economical, Migratory and Religious matters. This paper will start by examining the condition of

governance in the EU. Since the creation of its transregional context, Europe suffered in establishing a

solid leadership basis, and one could argue it has been “torn apart since the day it was born”1 -

ironically, under the banner of cooperation and integration2. It will then inspect the notion of

nationalism, and ponder if it benefits from the current devitalized political environment in the EU3.

Finally, it will analyze results and presents recommendations. As the result of this study, we should be

able answer the question: Is the Governance Crisis in Europe deteriorating its regional

environment?

2 - IS THERE A GOVERNANCE CRISIS IN EUROPEAN UNION?

Many voices were raised to warn about the escalating Leadership Crisis on Global and European

contexts. Shiza Shahid, on her report for the World Economic Forum 2015 Agenda, stated that “(...)the

international community has failed to address any major global issue in recent years”4. In a paper

published on a Council of Foreign Relation’s essay collection, Stewart Patrick claimed that “The EU

suffers from a leadership void. There is general consensus that the EU requires visionary leaders to

move past the eurozone crisis and the broader systemic problems”5. Michael Singh, Managing

Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, also noted that the international governance

can be shaken by “instability resulting from a lack of coordinated global leadership by major

powers”6.

To figure out if the EU is really diving into a leadership crisis, one should first understand what good

governance and good leadership means. According to the European Comission on its White Paper on

European Governance, the good governance at European level should comprehend openness,

participation, accountability, effectiveness and coherence7. This paper will evaluate if these five

principles were satisfactorily executed by the European Union, on the basis of public opinion and

empirical evidence. In the end of this section we should be able to realize the nature of the problem,

and then analyze its correlations with nationalism.

2.1 - Openness

The Oxford Dictionary Online refers to openness as “the quality of being honest and not hiding

information or feelings’ and - fundamentally important for the European environment - ‘the quality of

being able to think about, accept or listen to different ideas or people”8. Ergo, transparency.

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Figure 01 – Europeans’ thoughts on corruption in their country in the past three years

Source: Special Eurobarometer 397

Figure 02 – Europeans that believe corruption exists within EU institutions

.

Source: Special Eurobarometer 397

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Figure 03 – Percentage of respondents when asked “do you trust your government?”

Source: World Economic Forum Global Agenda Survey 2014

Figure 04 – Percentage of respondents when asked “Do you think EU is moving to the right

direction?”

Source: Bertelsmann-Stiftung 2015 Survey

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2.2 - Participation

Political Participation, as stated by the United Nations, is the “the freedom to speak out, assemble and

associate; the ability to take part in the conduct of public affairs”.9 As Yanis Varoufakis mentioned in

his lecture at Coimbra University in October 2015, “Democracy must be an opportunity for the

underprivileged to influence the conditions of their lifes”10. This scenario is not present in the current

European political environment, as the citizens are disconnected from the European Union politics and

institutions11.

Figure 05 - Comparison of tables taken from Eurobarometer surveys in 2014 and 2015 to

analyze the decrease of countries with the majority of their population feeling represented in

EU12 13

Source: Standard Eurobarometer 82 & Standard Eurobarometer 83

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Figure 06 – Europeans’ thoughts on representation by European Union

Source: Standard Eurobarometer 83

Figure 07 – Percentage of Young Men and Young Women that do not feel represented by

European Union.

Source: UN’s Youth Participation in Decision Making14

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2.3 - Accountability and Effectiveness

Accountability and effectiveness are two intrinsically related principles in good leadership model15.

One of the best definitions for accountability is the one found on Business Dictionary: “The obligation

of an individual or organization to account for its activities, accept responsibility for them, and to

disclose the results in a transparent manner”16 The importance of maintaining accountability on

governance secures reliability that “public bodies are performing in the full potential, providing value

for money in the provision of public services, instilling confidence in the government(...)”17. Whereas

effectiveness represents the solid outputs for the accountability inputs18.

Figure 08 – GDP Data in European Union (2011)

Source: ATKearney’s The EU Public Sector Spending Problem19

Chart 09 – “In the year 2050, do you think that the public welfare system in your country will

cover the needs of citizens in the following fields? Diagrammed is only the “No”-option.”20

Source: Bruegel’s Charting Public Opinion on the future of welfare state

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Figure 10 – Number of EU countries in relation to expenditure efficiency

Source: Investigation of Public Sector Efficiency within Selected European Regions21

2.4 - Coherence

Coherence is the fundamental concern related to European governance. First, the single currency, built

without the proper economic and democratic shock-absorbs, developed an array of problems

throughout the whole leadership framework22. Second, the decision making process is chaotic,

overlenghty and fruitless23. As Xi Jin & Madeleine Hosli stated in their European Union Voting in the

United Nations General Assembly, the postponements are caused when a collective principal -

European Union - is “made up of multiple actors with divergent policy preferences. The tensions

inside may result in internal competition, time-consuming coordination and ineffective control over

the agent”24.

John J. Mearshheimer, in his The False Promise of International Institutions, argued that “no other

region of the world has institutions as extensive and as well-developed as those in Europe”25. The

consequence, however, is the implementation of a complex web of overlapping institutions. In these

webs the sovereign power is diluted, and the lack of a clear central power26 responsible for

administrating the unity of the group results in increasing incoherence27.

The European Governance Paradox resides on the concept of ‘action’. Foucault argued that power is

generated through actions, and a condition for incoherence is that an actor performs more than one

‘action’. However, the Europe governance model is based under a complex structure of actors28,

leading to countless concomitant actions - and, consequently, incoherence.

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2.5 - Discussion: There is a Governance Crisis in Europe

Before concluding if there is or isn’t a Governance Crisis in Europe, one should first understand the

meaning of ‘Crisis’. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines crisis as “an unstable or crucial

time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending”29. The Oxford Dictionary defines

crisis as “a time when a difficult or important decision must be made”30. Finally, the Business

Dictionary defines it as a “critical event or point of decision which, if not handled in an appropriate

and timely manner (or if not handled at all), may turn into a disaster or catastrophe.”31

Analyzing the data provided in the previous topics, it is possible to conclude that the European Union

is failing (or striving) to implement the core principles of its own governance model. Openness is

selective; European citizens do not trust their government; the majority of the citizens do not feel

represented by their leaders; the complex array of institutions provide an incoherent environment

improper to plenary leadership. The result of this inconsistent behavior from EU leaders is the

undermining of the image of a shared fate, a concept explained by Richard Griffiths in his

‘Configuring the World’ MOOC as a social tool that “may make the members of a given society look

at each other with a degree of mutual recognition” and, consequently, “feel more disposed towards

taking common action to solve problems”32. The erosion of the shared fate concept threatens the

stability of the whole European framework.

By definition and comparative analysis, it’s evident that Europe is indeed walking into a huge crisis in

governance. The consequences can hit economical, social, political and environmental spheres inside

Europe, that can be easily spread to other geopolitcal spaces in our heavily interconnected world.

3 - IS THE GOVERNANCE CRISIS LEADING TO A GROWTH IN NATIONALISM?

Since the end of World War II, Europe lives under the fear of more widespread conflicts. The

European Coal and Steel Community was an attempt to avoid these clashes, by creating cooperation

between France and Germany. The Community evolved, and it is currently represented by the

European Union. One of the goals of the EU is to “weaken the nation-state concept and progressively

replace it with a (...) supranational European Identity”33. However, in the past few years this goal

turned out to be an arduous task, as a consequence of the deep-rooted Nationalist ideology inside the

different European countries.

Nationalism is an old concept that had protagonism in different periods of European History. The

cradle of nationalism, as explained by Hobsbawm, is explicitly Europe, and its ideology was

responsible for critical events in the continent, such as the two World Wars. The term ‘Nationalism’

can be applied to two phenomena, “(1) the attitude that the members of a nation have when they care

about their national identity, and (2) the actions that the members of a nation take when seeking to

achieve (or sustain) self-determination”34. For the purpose of analysis, this paper will adopt the second

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one, as the European Union reinforces the development of a Pan-European identity in its policies and

actions, as one of its main guidelines35.

Nationalism provides a sense of belonging. As defined in the beginning of the 20th century, the nation

was “the sum total of material and immaterial things, past, present and future that enjoy the loving

loyalty of patriots”36. Citizens of a nation identify themselves as members of that community, and their

fellow-members either, even when most members of that nation don’t know each other personally37.

The concept of “Imagined Communities”, coined by Anderson in 1983, affirms that the sense of

belonging in a community is born not only in the real connection between two members of that given

community, but also in the immaginative connection between them as part of that community. As

stated previously in this topic, the creation of a Pan-European identity is one of the greatest aims of the

European Union. What moves the EU away from this objective?

We will now analyze if there is a connection between the raising nationalism and the governance crisis

that exists in Europe. This process will be made by comparing the lack of the five elements of

Governance (openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness and coherence) in the region with

the raising nationalism in the same region. It’s important to note that the use of data provided by

public surveys (Gallup, Eurobarometer, Eurostats) to measure the Governance elements is crucial to

this analysis, since the author believes that the optimal way to correlate the concept of Nationalism -

that is, by its nature, produced by the citizens of a nation - is evaluating the data provided by the

citizens.

3.1 - Governance and Nationalism

One could ask how the lack of governance can relate to Nationalism. First, good governance promotes

integration and interaction between government and citizens. The lack of it represents the opposite:

segregation between them. As mentioned before, 58% of the EU population don’t trust their leaders,

and 72% of the EU population think they are moving into the wrong direction. The correlation is

simple: if the European citizen thinks the European Union is walking the wrong path, they will not

believe or even listen to what the EU has to say (and thus they will ignore its fundamental idea of a

pan-european identity).

As a result, the EU citizens will find themselves attached to the only national identity they have: the

one based on the nation-state they were born - or perhaps the one they spent most time living in. As

stated before in this paper, the nationalist ideology is rooted into the European culture, and it is really

important to say that, until the present date, there are very few evidences that acknowledge the

existence of a pan-european identity. It’s still an utopic concept, that the EU is straining to implement

- specially because it fails to connect its ideology with the citizens. And connection is known to be an

essential element in nationalist identity (Hobsbawm 1990).

Second, the European citizen does not feel represented by the European Union. One could say that it’s

because the EU is aiming to develop the pan-european identity among the young people, that were

born after the Eurozone creation, since the ones born before it are still attached to their nation-state

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ideology. But even among the youngsters the EU is failing to achieve its goal, since more than 70% of

the young european people do not feel represented by EU actions.

The consequence for that is simple: if the citizens do not feel represented by the EU, they will not see

themselves as members of the European Union. It will promote a nation-state identity in spite of a

(fragile and incongruous) pan-european identity. Nationalism is created in someone’s identification

and connection with their nation, and by failing in achieving that connection, the EU allows the feeling

of national (rather than regional) association to grow.

Third, the incoherent approach the EU has in its actions scares its citizens. The European Union relies

on the philosophy of integration and equality between the member-states. This is an ambitious

approach that defies Realist38 perception of states as actors that aim to maximize their own power. The

attempt to overcome it with the creation of collaborative bodies (the European Council, the European

Comission and the European Parliament) has failed, and the agenda-setting is still “heavily dependent

on France and Germany shaping decisions”39. The inequality between member-states in European

Union silences the other, less-dominant nations, reducing their capacity to act on a transregional level.

The citizens (especially the ones who are not Frenchs or Germans) feel ineffective while passively

watching the sovereignity of their nation-state - of which they are a component piece - being dragged

away by Brussels.

By harming the sovereignty of the nation-state, European Union is harming its own citizens. “As the

Europeans have long defined themselves by a strong sentimental national belonging, they face a threat

to their national identities as a threat to themselves”40. The fragmentation between EU citizens and

between them and the EU itself creates an environment where it’s impossible to generate the

previously mentioned concept of a shared fate amid the actors involved. As a result, the lack of

connection between these actors will contract social and political trust-generating tools, developing a

scenario where citizens view the EU (and even other european states) as viruses, with nationalism

being their antibody.

4 - CONCLUSION

The correlation between the frail governance and the rising nationalism in EU was briefly analyzed in

this paper, thus, we couldn’t expatiate to define one as the decisive origin of the other. However, the

lack of de facto leadership and cooperative approach to the decision-making process generates the

ideal conditions for the development of nationalistic ideologies. This process occurs in a zero-sum

game, and the cost for the increase in nationalist identities is the decrease of the pan-european status.

The literature on this topic is still insufficient, so we all could benefit from its improvement. It’s

important to take a step back when analysing the raise of nationalism and amplify the scope of

research. It’s possible that the fragile governance of the European Union is the source for the

Economical, Religious and Migratory crisis happening in the continent today, and constantly related as

causes for the spreading Nationalist wave in the EU.

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It’s also important, in order to revert the situation, that the EU develops a trust-bulding tool for its

decision-making process. It must aim for enhancing of all five governance elements mentioned in this

paper: openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness and coherence, and guaranteeing the

connection between the European Union - with its cooperative ideology - and its citizens. However,

the weakness of this suggestion lies on the creation of another organization at the EU level, diluting

the power and increasing incoherence.

The establishment of a new model of politics is essential for the maintenance of the European Union

and its fundamental ideals. National parliaments should evolve into a pan-european institution, and

discuss common European issues, instead of trying to produce an alliance with other national

parliaments. It would involve the dissemination of a cooperative ideology on regional politics, but it’s

clearly a massive effort for the current weakened administration.

Partnerships with (and the creation of) specific International Organizations could also help the EU in

achieving its goals and reducing the void in leadership. Nonetheless, it’s important to have in mind

that the EU is a complex body, filled with different standards, cultures and operational mindsets. It

would represent an extensive challenge to adapt to these differences41, but it’s a risk to be taken. As

the turmoil continues at the EU on a transregional level, the likelihood of its crash elevates. And the

consequences for an European breakdown could imply a global-scale political, social and economical

collapse.

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