European Unions: Labor's Quest for a Transnational Democracy

1. Introduction

[1] c h a p t e r o n e  Introduction W hen the legitimacy of European governance structures is debated, it is generally acknowledged that the European Union (EU) is facing a democratic deficit (Héritier 1999; European Commission 2003b). Conversely, however, it has been argued that the EU cannot be democratized because there is no European society as such, no European network of intermediate social organizations , no European public sphere, no European identity, and no European demos (people).1 This study of European trade union networks challenges the view that there is no realistic prospect for remedying the EU democratic deficit. Although the making of a more democratic EU does require transnational collective action, our findings suggest that Eurodemocratization is more constrained by the technocratic mode of EU governance than by the persistence of national differences. In addition to citizenship rights and democratic constitutional bodies, a democratic polity needs tight networks of intermediate civil society organizations , such as unions. These offer the possibility of greater citizen participation in the political system and thus an increase in its legitimacy (Lepsius 1993a, 1993b; Skocpol 2003). Citizens’ organizations, such as unions, also consolidate political democracy by holding corporations accountable when they subject citizens, as they frequently do, to autocratic rule in the production process or colonize the democratic process by pecuniary means (Sinyai 2006; Foot 2005; Crouch 2004). It follows that the emergence of transnational union networks could contribute to the constitution of a more democratic EU. Consequently, this book addresses two questions. First, has there emerged a European trade union movement that crosses national boundaries in response to the political and socioeconomic EU integration process? Second, to what extent and under which conditions do European trade unions contribute to the making of a more democratic EU? European Integration, Labor, and Democracy The political function that trade unions play in established democracies, however, does not necessarily match their role in democratization processes . Moreover, the EU-democratization process differs significantly from previous national experiences. Unlike comparable national processes, it cannot be analyzed as a transition from authoritarian rule to democracy in an established state (Schmitter 2000). For that reason, nation-statebased theories of democracy and democratization can only partially serve as a reference. Furthermore, most European integration theories neglect the concept of Euro-democratization; this is partly due to their outputoriented technocratic understanding of political legitimacy and partly due to their focus on elite EU-level actors. However, the prospects of a more democratic EU are widely discussed in political theory (Habermas 1992, 632–60; Kleger 1997; Abromeit 1998). Although we have already argued elsewhere that a transnational democracy (Erne et al. 1995)2 would be an essential normative objective, it is much more difficult to explain under which conditions social actors would pursue, consciously or unconsciously, a Euro-democratization strategy. Therefore, this book does not add another more or less sophisticated blueprint of a future Euro-democracy to the debate. Rather, it expresses how one actor, organized labor, may be an agent of Euro-democratization. Democratic political systems allowed organized labor to shift class con- flicts from the marketplace to the political arena, where the workers’ strength lies in their sheer numbers (Esping-Andersen and Korpi 1984). But even if unions may have played an important role in national democratization processes (Stedman Jones 1983; Rueschemeyer, Huber Stephens , and Stephens 1992), this does not necessarily promise a similar role for them at the EU level. Because authoritarian regimes typically repress independent union activities, they necessarily channel desires for worker representation into democratization movements. However, the institutional setting of the EU provides alternative options for organized labor. For this reason, this book assesses the various, deliberately chosen or emergent (Stråth 1990), strategies that unions can adopt to influence the transformation of governance in the EU. 2 European Unions Previous Debates and Evidence Numerous studies emphasize that EU-level trade unionism is primarily based on a union diplomacy, exclusive to union executives and experts (Turner 1996; Dølvik 1997; Gobin 1996; Schulten 2000b; Pernot 2001). The activities of these EU-level unionists were partly successful, given some achievements such as the social protocol of the Maastricht Treaty. These successes may be explained by a compatibility of this type of union action with the technocratic mode of EU governance. Indeed, EU institutions may favor the participation of labor in EU policy making because they require union...