Stein Rokkan's
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ESP0010.1177/0958928718804932Journal of European Social PolicyFerrera 804932research-article2018 View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by AIR Universita degli studi di Milano Journal Of European Forum Social Policy Journal of European Social Policy 2019, Vol. 29(1) 3 –12 Disproved or vindicated? Stein © The Author(s) 2018 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions Rokkan’s ‘impossibility theorem’ DOI:https://doi.org/10.1177/0958928718804932 10.1177/0958928718804932 on welfare democracy and journals.sagepub.com/home/esp European integration Maurizio Ferrera Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy Abstract In the mid-1970s, the great Norwegian scholar Stein Rokkan argued that the consolidation of the national welfare state was going to set definite limits to European integration. While the impetuous strengthening of the latter – from Maastricht to Lisbon – has largely disproved Rokkan’s factual expectations, developments during the last decade seem to have vindicated the theoretical insights which underpinned his original argument. If appropriately re-elaborated, such insights can help us to identify the conditions under which the economic and social dimension of the European Union might be reconciled in the future. Keywords Stein Rokkan, European integration, state-building, boundaries, welfare Introduction Stretching a bit my language – for the sake of argu- ment and debate – Rokkan’s reasoning might be The Norwegian social scientist Stein Rokkan (1921– defined as a sort of ‘impossibility theorem’: the 1979) remains an endless source of inspiration and nationalization of the citizenry inherent in the demo- fascination for scholars working on European poli- cratic welfare state was going to set definite limits to tics with a longue durée perspective. The big passion Europeanization. In the context of his theory, the of Rokkan was the development of Europe’s nation full-fledged consolidation of the national, demo- states and their transformation into mass democra- cratic and welfare state left no space for taking fur- cies. He had no time to systematically research what ther steps and building a supranational political he saw as the last formative step of the nation state: entity founded on ‘a genuine community of trust’. the expansion of public welfare. Nor did he seriously consider European integration – a novel process which had just taken off in the 1960s, at the height of Rokkan’s scientific trajectory. Yet, in a relative Corresponding author: Maurizio Ferrera, Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali e Politiche, unknown paper written in 1975, Rokkan formulated Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Conservatorio, 7, 20122 a short, but crystal clear argument which linked, pre- Milano, Italy. cisely, the welfare state and European integration.1 Email: [email protected] 4 Journal of European Social Policy 29(1) The aim of this short article is to revisit Rokkan’s allocation and at the same time potential targets of impossibility theorem: has it been disproved or vin- contention (Ferrera, 2018). dicated? After summarizing in the first section the In order to unravel the internal logic of ‘bounded tenets of Rokkan’s theory and his specific argument, structuring’, Rokkan built on the work of Albert O the second section will show how the latter was ini- Hirshman (1970) and conceptualized the process in tially disproved by factual developments, while the terms of an interdependence between the external clo- third section will argue in favour of (delayed) vindi- sure of a given space and its internal differentiation. cation. The fourth section will suggest some correc- Historically, state formation implied a gradual fore- tions to the Rokkanian perspective with a view to closure of exit options for actors and resources, the making it more suitable for prospective – in addition establishment of ‘system maintenance’ institutions to retrospective – analysis. Somewhat paradoxically, capable of eliciting domestic loyalty and the provision in my reformulation Rokkan’s perspective can be of channels for internal voice, that is, claims addressed turned from a pessimistic argument about the obsta- to national centres (their authorities) from social and cles to Europeanization into an analytical spring- geographical peripheries (their actors). board for identifying possible pathways for further Figure 1 visualizes Rokkan’s model of bounded integration. structuring. State-building, nation-building, mass democracy and the welfare state are the four ingredi- Bounded structuring and the ents and at the same time the four time phases of ‘impossibility theorem’ territorial system-building in modern Europe. Loyalty is placed towards the end of the system- How were the European states and nations ‘built’? building line, to connote the set of we-feelings and To address such a grand question, Rokkan labori- affectual/traditional attachments (identity) to the ter- ously weaved together a theoretical framework in ritorial community resulting, precisely, from increas- which the notions of boundaries and structuring ing social and system integration. occupy a central role. Structuring (that is, structure The fusion between territorial control and iden- formation) connotes the stabilization of social inter- tity, mass democracy and the welfare state produced actions and institutional forms within a given territo- very solid and highly integrated political systems. rial community through the creation of specific While recognizing the importance and to some coalitions among actors and government institutions. extent the inevitability of cross-border economic In the wake of some critical historical junctures, transactions, Rokkan seemed to think that such pro- centre–periphery relations and cleavage structures cesses could be managed through the establishment got ‘crystallized’ or ‘frozen’, that is, they came to be of appropriate legal frameworks – creating modern embedded in, and supported by, a particularly dense analogues of the medieval lex mercatoria. network of organizations (especially corporate and Writing in the 1960s and 1970s, Rokkan remained partisan organizations, but also service bureaucra- very sceptical about the overall import and prospects cies), whose main effect was (and still is) precisely of European integration. And here we come to the that of reproducing the structures themselves. ‘impossibility theorem’. In his 1975 paper, the Structuring processes are typically associated with Norwegian scholar came to argue that the interweav- the presence of boundaries – the second fundamen- ing of cultural identities, democratic participation tal concept. ‘Boundary’ identifies virtually any kind and social sharing within the nation state container of marker of a distinctive condition, relevant for the would foreclose any type of genuine Europeanization life chances of a territorial collectivity and perceived of democracy and welfare. European integration was as such by the collectivity itself. In line with the tra- deemed to remain circumscribed to a form of admin- dition of Max Weber, boundaries are fundamental istrative cooperation for economic exchanges. The mechanisms of territorial and social closure and thus impossibility theorem can be summarized in a num- sources of group formation, instruments for resource ber of distinct propositions:2 Ferrera 5 Figure 1. The process of “bounded structuring” of the European Nation State. 1. Mass democracy has strengthened territorial juxtaposition between the nationalization of identity identities, mobilized citizens and entrusted and solidarity and any substantial progress of Euro- them with direct electoral control of political pean integration? To what extent has the impossibil- authorities and their decisions. ity theorem been disproved or vindicated? 2. The welfare state has completed the nation- alization of the citizenry and sealed the Empirical grounding but gradual perimeter of genuine communities of trust. disproval 3. A key component of the latter is a general- ized belief in the efficiency and fairness of Let us locate ourselves in the 1960s and try to observe the territorial government. developments through Rokkan’s eyes. The integra- 4. Counter-pressures for external transactions tion project had taken off with grand intentions. Most – especially of an economic nature – will not of the Founding Fathers were ambitious federalists, disappear and may require extensive forms driven by ethical commitments (the fight against bel- of cooperation among executive bodies. ligerent nationalisms and the promotion of inter-state 5. Any transfer of substantial authority (i.e. peace and prosperity) and practical goals (setting up exclusive decision-making prerogatives) from a supranational authoritative infrastructure to uphold territorial governments under direct demo- security in the new cold war environment). The pro- cratic control to agencies untied from the lat- posed establishment of the European Defence ter ‘will prove very difficult’. Community – meant to evolve into no less than a ‘European Political Community’ – was a huge and At this point, we can raise the key question of this brave effort undertaken by would be centre-building article: was Rokkan right in positing an irremediable elites. The plan failed, and it did so after the vote of 6 Journal of European Social Policy 29(1) the French Parliament: it was notably a democratic and ambitious attempt at system-building (Flora, institution under direct popular control that