1,721,535 research outputs found
Crisis and Intergovernmental Retrenchment in the European Union? Framing the EU’s Answer to the COVID-19 Pandemic
Get PDFThe outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has placed severe pressure on the EU’s capacity to provide a timely and coordinated response capable of curbing the pandemic’s disastrous economic and social effects on EU member states. In this situation, the supranational institutions and their models of action are evidently under pressure, seeming incapable of leading the EU out of the stormy waters of the present crisis. The article frames the first months of management of the COVID-19 crisis at EU level as characterised by the limited increase in the level of steering capacity by supranational institutions, due to the reaffirmed centrality of the intergovernmental option. To explain this situation, the article considers the absence of the institutional capacity/legitimacy to extract resources from society(ies), and the subsequent impossibility of guaranteeing an effective and autonomous process of political (re)distribution, the key factors accounting for the weakness of vertical political integration in the response to the COVID-19 challenge. This explains why during the COVID-19 crisis as well, the pattern followed by the EU is rather similar to past patterns, thus confirming that this has fed retrenchment aimed at the enforcement of the intergovernmental model and the defence of the most sensitive core state powers against inference from supranational EU institutions
Opposition Parties in the European Parliament: The Cases of Syriza, Podemos and the Five Star Movement
No full textThe different crises which have affected the European Union (EU) since 2008, have triggered a major politicisation of European integration. This dynamic makes it of utmost importance to understand how parties act within the European Parliament (EP), in order to gauge whether it is possible to identify a parliamentary opposition which is Eurocritical but not Eurosceptic. For this purpose, three parties are considered: Syriza (Synaspismos Rizospastikis Aristeras, Coalition of the Radical Left), Podemos (We Can) and the Movimento Cinque Stelle (Five Star Movement). These parties’ positions on the EU are either unclear and/or critical, but also hard to classify as hostile to European integration. The empirical analysis highlights a significant degree of commonality in the voting behaviour of these parties and a high level of disagreement with the Eurosceptic bloc, thus pointing to a more complex political confrontation in the EP structured around: pro-EU/majority parties, Eurocritical/‘loyal’ opposition parties and Eurosceptic/anti-system parties
Eurosceptic, Eurocritical or Euroconfused? An analysis of the Five Star Movement’s voting behaviour in the European Parliament
No full textAfter two years of presence within the European Parliament (EP), is it possible to define the Five Star Movement (M5S) position regarding the European Union? Are these stances similar or different from the rhetoric used by the party leadership about EU? And which are the parties in the EP with which it shares similar policy positions? As a matter of fact, there is a certain confusion in defining Grillo’s Movement position about European integration. The aim of the article is to enquire whether the M5S is taking political stances similar to those of Eurosceptic (and right wing) parties or if it is showing a different inclination, more similar to those assumed by pro Europe or Euro critical parties of the left and the new left. To accomplish this task, the article will take into consideration the M5S’ voting behaviour within the EP on several policy areas which are salient for the European Union policy making. The first part of the article will be focused on the explanation of the M5S’s growth and to the review of the concept of Euroscepticism. In the last part the M5S’s votes concerning the policies related to the pro/anti integration, GAL/TAN and Left/Right cleavages, will be compared to the ones expressed by the Eurosceptic and leftist parties within the EP, to understand with which group there is the highest agreement rate. Thanks to the evidence produced it will be possible to define: (a) to which part of the EP political spectrum the M5S is closer, (b) provide a first in depth and descriptive analysis of the M5S’ political behaviour within the supranational arena
Politicization and conflict in the relationship with the European Union: An analysis of Italian Prime Ministers' parliamentary speeches
No full textIn recent years, the relationship between Italy and the European Union (EU) has worsened due to the emergence of an increasingly negative attitude towards the question of European integration. The growth in citizens' disaffection with, and hostility towards, the political elites is part of a more general trend witnessed throughout the EU. From this point of view, an understanding of whether, and in what way, the role of Prime Minister (PM) has been affected by this change of perspective, especially following the various crises affecting the EU in the last 10 years, would be worthwhile we believe. This article examines the political positions of all PM during the so-called Second Republic (1994-now), by means of a longitudinal content analysis. This analysis reveals that after 2008, and for the first time in the history of the Italy-EU relationship, PMs' speeches have included sharp criticism of the EU. In particular, two PMs (Renzi and Conte) have clearly rejected those conditionality mechanisms implied by the EU. The results of this study confirm the start of a phase of strong conflict/politicization in regard to the EU and its institutional functioning. This article contributes to the broader literature concerning the study of the relationship between political elites and the EU, by focusing for the first time not simply on party leaders but on one of the most important institutional roles in the Italian political system (the Presidenza del Consiglio)
Evaluating fatigue onset in metallic materials: Problem, current focus and future perspectives
Get PDFThe impact of mechanical fatigue on load-bearing metallic components and structures is highly significant, encompassing economy, environment and safety aspects. For nearly 200 years, engineers and scientists have been relentlessly trying to avoid fatigue failures and to understand their causes. The last few decades have seen the prominent advent of a wide range of experimental and computational techniques that allowed us to make once-unthinkable advances in this field. Despite this progress, a significant number of problems remain unsolved. This short note pinpoints the most critical aspect of fatigue failure: the conditions that initiate or allow propagating cracks to form. Specifically, the fundamentals of mechanical fatigue are examined, while acknowledging the crucial role of multiphysics aspects that often are present in real-life engineering applications. The first part frames the problem by introducing essential concepts and exploring mechanistic aspects across different length scales and loading regimes. Subsequently, a brief but wide-ranging review highlights current research trends. This foundation sets the stage for identifying outstanding challenges and exploring potential future research directions in the conclusive part of the article
Residual stress as a fracture toughening mechanism: A Phase-Field study on a brittle material
No full textRecent engineering design practice for materials and structures relies more and more on damage-tolerant criteria. Such a design approach is attained mainly by employing materials showing a certain level of fracture toughness. This work aims to explore a way to generate fracture toughness in materials that intrinsically shows no toughness at all, i.e. brittle materials. The key idea lies in the introduction of inelastically deformed sub-regions (e.g. circular inclusions) in the base material, which inevitably generate a residual stress field. To accomplish this purpose, the advanced Phase-Field method coupled with the eigenstrain theory is employed, respectively to simulate the crack propagation behavior and to introduce a residual stress field in a pre-notched sample. Information about crack propagation and displacement externally imposed is used to obtain the resistance curve (R-curve) for several configurations. One of the main findings of this research regards the possibility of originating fracture toughness in intrinsically brittle materials upon appropriate positioning of one inclusion - containing a certain amount of inelastic deformation – with respect to a notch tip. This result demonstrates that accurate design of residual stress is crucial to attaining unprecedented material or structure performance, and the method shown here represents a valid tool to exploit this advanced design capability
Matteo Renzi: A new leadership style for the Italian Democratic Party and Italian politics
No full textMatteo Renzi’s eruption on to the Italian political scene is now overcoming the inertia of the Italian political system, with a highly personalised leadership style which is challenging the Democratic Party’s (Partito Democratico, PD) organisational model. Renzi’s great innovation on the Italian left is the enforcement of a post-ideological leadership which is able to attract wide support due to a vigorous style of communication and skill in the use of traditional and new media. This article analyses the rise of this new charismatic leadership and the way in which it challenged the traditional organisational model of the PD, and aims to identify the main elements that define it at national and party level
The persistent dilemma of supranational representation. Framing the weakness of the European Parliament’s representative function in light of the rise of Euroscepticism
No full textThe different crises affecting the EU since 2008 have triggered the politicization of European integration. In this regard, it is of primary importance to understand how the EU representation model works, and what have been the major shortcomings of this function at the supranational level. The article will focus on the role and functioning of the European Parliament (EP), which in this moment in history should arguably be at the centre of the political debate over the EU and its governance. Instead, the EP’s representative function has proven to be rather weak also in this mutating context. Using the theoretical insights of the representative claim theory declined according to the peculiarity of the multilevel governance system, the present article offers a theoretical framework with which to interpret the weaknesses and the dilemma of supranational representation and the role of the EP in this fragile context. Furthermore, the article will suggest that the rise of Euroscepticism can be seen as an unavoidable outcome of the shortcomings of the EU’s representative system
Book Review: John FitzGibbon, Benjamin Leruth and Nick Startin (eds), <i>Euroscepticism as a Transnational and Pan-European Phenomenon: The Emergence of a New Sphere of Opposition</i>
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