June 1, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — Cas Mudde, Nancy Schaenen Visiting Scholar in Ethics at DePauw University, contributes an essay to the June 2011 issue of Leadership magazine, which is published in South Africa. "The financial crisis that has swept across European economies since 2008
is having profound political effects," notes the publication's introduction to the article, which is headlined "European integration: after the fall."
The text adds, "It is time to face the new realities and discuss the options they present. More than ever there is a need for an open debate on European integration - but this time a debate that explores all options, including the return to a less integrated European Union, writes Cas Mudde."
Also a part-time
visiting associate professor of political science at DePauw University, Mudde writes, "For decades European integration was an elite-driven process supported by a 'permissive consensus' of the population as a whole. While the populations of European states were hardly involved in shaping the process of integration,
and were almost never asked for their explicit approval (in elections or referendums), the elites could count on a basic level of unexpressed support.
The rise of so-called 'Euroscepticism', at least since the signing of the Maastricht treaty in 1992 - which transformed the mainly economic European Community into a much more political and social European Union -- has meant that this permissive consensus is no longer a given. In fact, with recent popular revolts, such as the rejection of the European convention in referendums in France and the Netherlands in 2005, some commentators have started to speak of a 'constraining dissensus'. There is increasing evidence that this dissensus exists beyond the level of public sentiment."
Access the complete piece at Leadership's website.
Dr. Mudde has published widely on topics such as political extremism, democratization in Eastern Europe, civil society, and Euroskepticism. His book Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe won the Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research and was named a Choice "Outstanding Academic Title."
In February, Professor Mudde was quoted in a Newsweek story on "Europe's Extreme Righteous". Learn more in this previous article.