This volume examines what the concept of ideology can add to our understanding of the European Union, and the way in which the process of European integration has inflected the ideological battles that define contemporary European politics, both nationally and transnationally. Contemporary debates on the nature and value of the European Union often touch on the notion of ideology. The EU’s critics routinely describe it as an ideologically-motivated project, associating it from the left with a form of ‘neo-liberal capitalism’ or from the right with ‘liberal multiculturalism’. Its defenders often praise it in explicitly post- or anti-ideological terms, as a regulatory body focused on the production of output legitimacy, or as a bulwark against dangerous ideological revivals in the form of nationalism and populism. Yet the existing academic literature linking the study of the EU with that of ideologies is surprisingly thin. This volume brings together a number of original contributions by leading international scholars and takes an approach that is both historical and conceptual, probing the EU’s ideological roots, while also laying the grounds for a reappraisal of its contemporary ideological make-up. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy.

Hans Kelsen is widely recognized as one of the most important legal theorists of the 20th century. Surprisingly, however, his political writings are not nearly as widely known as his legal theory, especially in the English-speaking world. This book fills the void between what is and isn't known about Hans Kelsen's political philosophy, and the ways that philosophy has and will continue to shape political debates inherent to democracy in the future. For the first time in English, this classic book - with an introduction by political theorist Nadia Urbinati - provides an overview of Kelsen's career and his contributions to 20th century political thought.

This volume examines what the concept of ideology can add to our understanding of the European Union, and the way in which the process of European integration has inflected the ideological battles that define contemporary European politics, both nationally and transnationally. Contemporary debates on the nature and value of the European Union often touch on the notion of ideology. The EU's critics routinely describe it as an ideologically-motivated project, associating it from the left with a form of 'neo-liberal capitalism' or from the right with 'liberal multiculturalism'. Its defenders often praise it in explicitly post- or anti-ideological terms, as a regulatory body focused on the production of output legitimacy, or as a bulwark against dangerous ideological revivals in the form of nationalism and populism. Yet the existing academic literature linking the study of the EU with that of ideologies is surprisingly thin. This volume brings together a number of original contributions by leading international scholars and takes an approach that is both historical and conceptual, probing the EU's ideological roots, while also laying the grounds for a reappraisal of its contemporary ideological make-up. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy.

Moral relativism is deeply troubling for those who believe that, without a set of moral absolutes, democratic societies will devolve into tyranny or totalitarianism. Engaging directly with this claim, Carlo Invernizzi Accetti traces the roots of contemporary anti-relativist fears to the antimodern rhetoric of the Catholic Church and then rescues a form of philosophical relativism for modern, pluralist societies, arguing that this viewpoint provides the firmest foundation for an allegiance to democracy. In his analyses of the relationship between religious arguments and political authority and the implications of philosophical relativism for democratic theory, Accetti makes a far-ranging contribution to contemporary debates over the revival of religion in politics and the conceptual grounds for a commitment to democracy. He presents the first comprehensive genealogy of anti-relativist discourse and reclaims for English-speaking readers the overlooked work of Hans Kelsen on the connection between relativism and democracy. By engaging with contemporary attempts to replace the religious foundation of democratic values with a neo-Kantian conception of reason, Accetti also makes a powerful case for relativism as the best basis for a civic ethos that integrates different perspectives into democratic politics.

Christian Democratic actors and thinkers have been at the forefront of many of the twentieth century's key political battles - from the construction of the international human rights regime, through the process of European integration and the creation of postwar welfare regimes, to Latin American development policies during the Cold War. Yet their core ideas remain largely unknown, especially in the English-speaking world. Combining conceptual and historical approaches, Carlo Invernizzi Accetti traces the development of this ideology in the thought and writings of some of its key intellectual and political exponents, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. In so doing he sheds light on a number of important contemporary issues, from the question of the appropriate place of religion in presumptively 'secular' liberal-democratic regimes, to the normative resources available for building a political response to the recent rise of far-right populism.

Technocratic appeals to expertise and populist invocations of 'the people' have become mainstays of political competition in established democracies. This development is best understood as the emergence of technopopulism-a new political logic that is being superimposed on the traditional struggle between left and right. Political movements and actors-such as Italy's Five Star Movement and France's La Republiqe En Marche-combine technocratic and populist appeals in a variety of ways, as do more established parties that are adapting to the particular set of incentives and constraints implicit in this new, unmediated form of politics. In the first book-length treatment of the phenomenon of technopopulism, we combine theoretical and historical approaches, offering a systematic definition of the concept of technopopulism, while also exploring a number of salient contemporary examples. This book provides a detailed account of the emergence of this new political logic, as well as a discussion of its troubling consequences for existing democratic regimes. It ends by considering some possible remedies that go beyond the simplistic idea that in the right 'dose' populism and technocracy can counter-balance one another.