The Invisible Constitution of Politics

As social practices now frequently extend beyond national boundaries, experiences and expectations about fair and legitimate politics have become increasingly fragmented. Our ability to understand and interpret others and to tolerate difference, rather than overcome diversity, is therefore at risk. This book focuses on the contested meanings of norms in a world of increasing international encounters. The author argues that cultural practices are less visible than organisational practices, but are constitutive for politics and need to be understood and empirically ‘accounted’ for. Comparing four elite groups in Europe, Antje Wiener shows how this invisible constitution of politics matters. By comparing individual interpretations of norms such as democracy and human rights, she shows how they can mean different things, even to frequently travelling elite groups.

Antje Wiener is Professor of Politics and International Relations in the Department of European Studies and Modern Languages at the University of Bath.

Antje Wiener

University of Bath

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Antje Wiener 2008

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First published 2008

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

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ISBN 978-0-521-89596-5 hardback

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Contents

Tables and graphs

Tables

Graphs

Preface

This book’s focus on meanings of norms, frictions between interpretations and subsequent conflicts among international actors reflects a sign of the times of extending social practices beyond the boundaries of modern nation-states. It is likely to be lost on those who are not part of the process. In turn, those who participate in global travel and discussion usually neither move in large stable groups, nor spend much time thinking about those left ‘at home’. As a result, experiences and expectations about fair, just and legitimate politics become increasingly fragmented. With more movement yet less time to ponder and probe, the potential for understanding the interpretation of others and the ability to tolerate difference is at risk. In fact, cultural differences often either remain unnoticed or turn into the invisible yet influential elephant in the room. This book’s research on contested interpretations of fundamental norms addresses the phenomenon of a gap between shared perceptions of what is just and fair, on the one hand, and individual experience, on the other. It proposes to overcome the gap by focusing on cultural validation as the way in which meaning-in-use is enacted.

The desire to explore this gap’s impact on politics emerged through travels across the Atlantic and across the Channel. In the light of a growing web of contracts, agreements and treaties in the global realm which appear to develop more constitutional quality than ever before, on the one hand, and the interrelated process of contesting that very constitutional quality in international encounters, on the other, finding out what lies underneath and beyond the formal validity of norms and the multiple reactions it inspires appears a worthwhile project. The first conceptual discussions with a view towards carrying out empirical research on this matter occurred during a walk up to Santa Brigida on a sunny morning in Tuscany with Thomas Risse and Tanja Börzel, seven years back. At the time, we were not only struggling with the invisibility of it all but fell victims to a higher force when our deliberations were abruptly put to an end by a fierce swarm of bees. The idea of tackling the ‘invisible constitution’ stuck despite the circumstances. At one workshop, one of so many occasions where the research was discussed, Detlef Sprinz commented, ‘why not call it the invisible constitution?’ The title prevailed and here it is, The Invisible Constitution of Politics.

The book’s adoption of a bifocal analysis that elaborates on the link between empirical and normative research inevitably brought its author to the limits of what an education in political science, albeit multicultural, had to offer. The inspiration for a critical approach to international politics goes way back to my first encounter with political science as a student of Volker Finke at high school in Nienburg/Weser. I faced a seemingly overwhelming amount of empirical data but was sustained in my endeavours by the support and expertise of many colleagues and friends, especially Jens Schneider, Anne Huffschmid, Thomas Diez and Raingard Esser, and I would like to thank them all. The discussions with Jim Tully played no small part in fuelling my stamina to complete the manuscript and place it within the larger frame of things. It is to him that I owe special thanks. Last but not least, neighbours in Killyleagh repeatedly confronted me with the hard choice between going sailing or sticking to my writing routine. By leaving the excitement of races to others, from time to time, it is now possible to answer the question repeatedly posed over the garden fence – ‘Is your book done yet?’ – in the affirmative.

A project requiring as much empirical research as this is impossible to carry out without manifold support. I especially thank all interviewees for sparing the time for the interviews. In addition I would like to thank Henning Dahl-Arnold and Daniel Curran for transcriptions; Uwe Puetter for research assistance; Armin von Bogdandy, Jo Shaw and Joe Weiler for facilitating most interesting exchanges on constitutionalism in the different academic cultures of Germany, the UK and the USA; Dorothee Wiegand for patient and repeated advice on the quantitative aspects of the evaluation; and Ellen Immergut for discussions about ‘soft institutions’ when we were neighbours at the Hanse Institute of Advanced Studies (and Michael Zürn for bringing me there). For reading and commenting on either the entire manuscript or parts of it, I would like to thank Mathias Albert, Martin Binder, Jutta Brunnée, Nicole Deitelhoff, Raingard Esser, Benjamin Herborth, Anne Huffschmid, Andrea Lenschow, Aidan McGarry, Heinrich Mintrop, Uwe Puetter, Jens Schneider, Guido Schwellnus, Jo Shaw and Jim Tully. Last but by no means least, I am very grateful for the helpful comments of two anonymous referees, which were crucial for arriving at the final version of the book. For many discussions on norms, I would like to thank my graduate students in Belfast, Bath and Trento as well as the uncountable workshop and conference participants over the years (many probably still wondering whether the ‘constitution’ might ever become ‘visible’). For language editing and formatting, my thanks go to Kathleen Claussen. For excellent advice with regard to the interview evaluation, I am very thankful to Jan Kruse and for guidance and support in the publishing process, my warm thanks go to John Haslam as well as Carrie Cheek, Jo Breeze and Jacqueline French at Cambridge. For financial and logistic support, I would like to thank the British Academy, the Hanse Institute for Advanced Studies, the Social and Legal Studies Association, the University Association for Contemporary European Studies, the Science Center for Social Research in Berlin, the 6th Framework Programme’s Network of Excellence CONNEX, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Institute of European Studies and the School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy at the Queen’s University of Belfast, and the Department of ESML at the University of Bath for providing the opportunity to finalise the project following the move over from Northern Ireland. The book would not have been completed without emotional support. I thank my friends, especially Bernd Bittermann, Raingard Esser, Heinrich Mintrop, Martina Rüllmann, Carsten Tiedeken and Dorothee Wiegand, and dedicate the book to my parents Winfriede and Christian Wiener.