Objective
The particular differences of political culture in the EU between the member-states and the member and the candidate countries impede the deepening of the European integration.
For most of the recent member and current candidate countries the long years of Communist rule resulted in a political culture divergent from that of Western Europe, emphasising institutional control rather than popular participation. Decades of ethnic conflict and religious clashes in the Balkans furthered the different understandings about the individual-state relations in the Southeastern Europe.
In the case of Turkey, creating a secular state in an essentially Muslim country posed yet another challenge. Given the plethora of challenges, the rapid inclusion of citizens into the integration process is extremely difficult as the different political cultures of member states and member and candidate countries allow for rapid integration at the elite level.
This in turn tends to alienate the masses from the supranational political processes. In this context, this research project intends to shed light on these challenges by exemplifying various examples of civil society development in the EU. Research Objectives: To ascertain to what extent the civil society is active in political life in the selected West and East European countries.
Who are the major actors in the development of policies at national and supranational levels? (national or Euro-bureaucracy, political actors or national and supranational NGOs?). To analyse the main activities of the EU with regards to the development of civil society in the member and candidate countries.
To investigate the level of civil society development in Turkey. What are the recent developments in the country with regards to the civic initiatives? How does the speeding up of the EU membership process affect the development of civil society in the country?
Fields of science
Keywords
Call for proposal
FP6-2004-MOBILITY-5
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
EIF - Marie Curie actions-Intra-European FellowshipsCoordinator
GHENT
Belgium