Fragile Consensus Research Articles

Going beyond the Council as brake of EU energy policy: Analysing the internal process of the Council in the recast of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive

The Council is the voice of the member states' governments in the EU policymaking process and the institutional setting where member states can enforce their national interest. The literature on Council decision-making has previously mostly used expert interviews or voting patterns. Through a detailed examination of one specific legislative file in the recent ‘Fit for 55’ climate package in which subsidiarity and varying national conditions is central, this study focus on how disagreements between member states are resolved and how strategic word framing can aid in resolving political controversies in EU energy policy. This article analyses Council working group meeting notes and revisions of the recent recast of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, providing a unique look behind the curtains of negotiations between member states in the Council within a deliberative intergovernmental framework. A mix of quantitative and qualitative text analysis is applied to deliberations and legislative revisions. The findings show that a fragile consensus is reached despite disagreement through enabling of national flexibility in policy decisions, indicating that the Council determines the speed of European integration in the policy domain.

Government-Coordinated Internal Colonization in the Era of Nationalism: The Case of Dualist Hungary

Abstract Between 1881 and 1914, Hungarian governments established at least 36 agricultural colonies in today’s territory of Romania (nine new villages and 25 neighborhoods attached to existing ones). After 1894, a separate government fund was created for land purchases and the venture was entrusted to a Department of Colonization within the Ministry of Agriculture. This article gives an archival-based account of the political, financial, agricultural, and logistical aspects of the settlement program and compares it with its better-researched Prussian model. Investigating it as a series of interactions between settlers, the dedicated government agency, local potentates, and the surrounding population, it identifies structural impediments to the endeavor. Although there was a broad unity across political parties behind the idea of conquering new territories for the ethnic nation, the settlement program rested on a fragile consensus within the elite. Its expansion after 1900 was mainly due to Minister Ignác Darányi, whereas the steps of other high officials give nuances to Hungarian nationalities policies. When Prime Minister István Tisza dropped the program on the eve of the First World War, it was already in a state of hibernation because the governing party had realized that the settlers posed a political liability for them.

Excluded but Fighting: Where Are the Voices of Sex Workers and Their Allies in EU Anti-Trafficking Policymaking?

The ‘end demand’ approach to prostitution has been popping up in Europe through the anti-trafficking debate and receives increasing attention on the international agenda. It is well recognized that improving workers’ rights, increasing unionization and collective bargaining coverage are effective strategies for tackling trafficking. However, with regard to sexual exploitation, focus is not on these strategies but instead on the abolition of the entire sex industry with the help of criminal justice systems. In first decade after the Palermo Protocol (2000), international organizations (IGOs) promoted a human rights-based approach to tackling trafficking, aiming to balance the criminal justice focus of the protocol. This work guided states on how to maintain and protect human rights while combating human trafficking. However, the explosive issue of sex work/prostitution was minimized, with IGOs avoiding the topic due to the fragile consensus about the definition of human trafficking and state obligations. Meanwhile, sex workers’ collectives and unions globally and throughout Europe developed their own strategies on how to address widespread criminalization, discrimination, violence and exploitation, with no or very limited funding and resources—and without recognition of their work, experience and expertise. This article presents how the European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance (ESWA) and other sex workers’ rights civil society organizations have sought to challenge the harmful impacts of the ‘end demand’ discourse and the criminalization of sex work in the name of anti-trafficking in Europe.

"Flattening the curve": Communication, risk and COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey.

This study examines Turkish online news media coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country. It explores media framing narratives, particularly how they reflected and promoted elite polarization or consensus in the COVID-19 debate. The findings shed light on Turkish political power dynamics during the first stage in the national response to the pandemic. The study highlights the calculations of political partisans who are keen on building a fragile consensus in an increasingly polarized society.

State Building in Crisis Governance: Donald Trump and COVID-19.

State Building in Crisis Governance: Donald Trump and COVID-19.

The OSCE, Ukraine, and peace process

At the beginning of the Ukraine crisis in 2014, the OSCE acted unexpectedly promptly for an organization deeply divided for years. Although the revitalization of its relatively autonomous institutions and mechanisms (that did not require prior consensus) failed to produce uncontested evidence to inform collective decisions, the deployment of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission raised the threshold for resuming violence. The Normandy group (France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine) became the main platform for generating political solutions. The Trilateral Contact Group (the special representative of the OSCE Chairperson, Russia, and Ukraine) proved instrumental for translating these solutions into practical measures. These activities fueled expectations of consolidation of the peace process in spite of the obstacles faced by the OSCE operations, such as their limited mandate, restrictions to the freedom of movement, and inability to verify the withdrawal of weapons or enforce ceasefire and disengagement agreements. However, the ultimate failure of the Minsk peace process in early 2022 can hardly be attributed to these shortcomings. It was the increasing disagreement between Russia and Ukraine on a number of central issues of the peace process, such as the sequence of steps to implement the agreed measures or the engagement of the separatist regions in talks with Kiev, that undermined political process, adversely affected the OSCE operations, and eroded the fragile consensus. Despite the temporary revitalization of the political process in late 2019 and in 2020, the escalation of the situation around Ukraine in 2021 – early 2022 degenerated into a direct military intervention by Russia and resulted in the termination of all consensus-based OSCE operations in Ukraine.

The French general population's attitudes toward lockdown against COVID-19: a fragile consensus

BackgroundIn March 2020, as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID− 19) pandemic was spreading across the globe, many countries have implemented unprecedented lockdown measures. But how populations did react to these measures? We examined the case of France. Our aims were threefold: assessing some aspects of their impact on French’s daily living conditions; investigating their attitudes toward the lockdown; investigating the factors associated with these attitudes.MethodsA cross-sectional online survey was carried out 10 days after the nationwide lockdown (from March 27th to March 29th 2020), among a representative sample of the mainland French population aged 18 and over. A quota sampling method was applied to achieve a sample of 1012 respondents. We used a cluster analysis to obtain contrasted attitudinal profiles, and logistic regressions to investigated which factors were associated to these profiles.ResultsAfter 10 days of lockdown, there were already significant consequences regarding respondents’ living conditions and mental health. Most respondents supported the current lockdown. However, it appeared as a stopgap measure due to a lack of alternatives, and a large majority acknowledged its heavy drawbacks. We found three contrasted attitudinal profiles: full support (38%), strong but critical support (31%), limited support (31%). Regarding respondents’ SES, low-income and low-education respondents were more likely to display critical or limited support to the lockdown, as well as those who reported deteriorated living conditions or psychological distress.ConclusionsIn France, the large public support to the lockdown was fragile. First, it was a critical consensus anchored in current controversies and recent social struggles. Second, it was weaker among people with a lows SES, especially since the lockdown have exacerbated preexisting social inequalities.

The 2015 Paris Climate Conference

AbstractThe paper applies argumentative discourse analysis to a corpus of official statements made by key players (USA, EU, China, India, etc.) at the opening of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference. The chief goal is to reveal the underlying structure of practical arguments and values legitimising the global climate change policy-making. The paper investigates which of the elements of practical arguments were common and which were contested by various players. One important conclusion is that a complex, multilateral deal such as the 2015 Paris Agreement is based on afragile consensus. This consensus can be precisely described in terms of the key premises of practical arguments that various players share (mostly: description of current circumstances and future goals) and the premises they still discuss but prefer not to prioritise (value hierarchies or precise measures). It thus provides an insight into how a fragile consensus over goals may lead to a multilateral agreement through argumentative processes.

Income Stratification: Putting a Spotlight on the Boundaries

The paper aims to deliver an extended review of both Russian and international studies that have contributed considerably to the income stratification discourse. The very importance of the given research is justified by the lack of systematic studies in the field of the one-dimensional stratification of the Russian society, although applied socio-economic research uses broadly one-dimensional classifications based on income. The given paper considers and systemizes the results of income groups classifications developed both within the absolute and relative approaches. At the present time, neither international nor Russian studies propose a conventional view on the boundaries between income groups while at the same time developing a model of income stratification applicable to industrially-advanced societies. The main reason is that researchers dealing with income scales are normally focused on specific social groups such as the poor, the middle class, the affluent, and the rich rather than the whole society and its structure. Furthermore, we have shown that sociological papers are more likely to support the relative approach, and particularly a median approach. Researchers have even reached a fragile consensus regarding some of the boundaries of this scale, that is, they seem to agree that the interval of 0,75-1,25 of median incomes allows for the determination of the economic middle class for industrially advanced societies. The majority of scholars are in agreement that incomes exceeding the 2 and below the 0,5 medians represent the boundaries that distinguish opposing social groups, that is, the top and bottom of a society, correspondingly. The present study has a multidisciplinary focus so that it might be of interest to sociologists, economists, demographers, and applied statisticians.

Music and Ultra-Modernism in France: A Fragile Consensus, 1913–1939 by Barbara L. Kelly (review)

Music and Ultra-Modernism France: A Fragile Consensus, 1913-1939. By Barbara L. Kelly. (Music Society and Culture.) Woodbridge, Suffolk, Eng.: Boydell Press, 2013. [x, 257 p. ISBN 9781843838104 (hardcover), $95; (e-book), various.] Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index. Successfully walking tightrope between cultural-historical musicology and reception history, Music and Ultra-Modernism France: A Fragile Consensus, 1913-1939 tackles wide range of issues, all of which assert sense of purpose (to further the development of French musical style), whether national, political, religious, or academic, felt by composers and during the period question. Although musicologists have often sought out the frictions and significant differences between artists, identifying their original and significant contributions, Kelly's volume searches for variety of forms, whether aesthetic, critical, stylistic, harmonic, structural or contextual. She probes reception history' the period, line with her other work on Maurice Ravel and the cultural practice of music France. As she noted previously: apparent political unity that emerged before the Great War also appears to have created some consensus among musicians (Barbara Kelly, French Music, Culture, and National Identity, 1870-1939 [Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2008], 9). Music and Ultra-Modernism France significant contribution to the field as it acknowledges the history of the musicological discipline within France before World War II, as well as detailing the debate not only between critics, but also between composers, and between and composers, as well as among those identifying themselves as musicologists (the informed critics). The title of this book intriguing, and the subheading an accurate reflection of the book's content. The reference to ultra-modernism, though, perhaps not the clearest way to illustrate the main focus of the book, which does not aim to define this term, but rather refers to its use contemporaneous criticism (see pp. 4--7) before probing the issues where consensus can be found. Kelly responds to Edmondstoune Duncan's book, Ultra-Modernism Music: A Treatise on the Latler-Day Revolution Musical Art (London: Winthrop Rogers, 1915), by exploring a whole generation of composers who contributed some elements of the 'visionary' (p. 5) to advancing musical ideas and techniques, and to Jacques Maritain's Anti-modernisme (Paris: Librairie de l'art catholique, 1920; 3d ed., Rouart, 1935). The interwar period had perception of lack of great (p. 6) beyond Claude Debussy, but this volume asserts who those figures are by drawing out the leading and changing trends French interwar music, particularly asserting the force of Ravel's musical leadership (chapters 2 and 3), that of Charles Koechlin and Olivier Messiaen (chapter 3), and that of Francis Poulenc and Georges Auric (chapter 6). As Kelly notes, the aim of this book is to identify and trace the evolution of sonority as distinctive French modernist strand, seeing it as central, enduring and consistent preoccupation French musical traditions from Debussy's generation onwards, which was subjected to transformation the 1920s and 1930s (pp. 8-9). There are copious citations from critical reviews as well as of letters from numerous archival deposits. As Glenn Watkins identified his book Pyramids at the Louvre: Music, Culture, and Collage from Stravinsky to the Postmodernists, critics and composers alike had begun to explore similar musical ideas in tandem with the cultural trends of the day (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1994, [p. 146]). Kelly takes up this baton. Notably, the archival research presents correspondence previously not explored, particularly as regards Leon Vallas. Kelly raises significant questions regarding the way that thematic consensus on various composers shared--and some respects, developed and promoted--in the press as result of composer-critic partnerships (chapter 3). …

Music and Ultra-Modernism in France: A Fragile Consensus, 1913-1939

Music and Ultra-Modernism in France: A Fragile Consensus, 1913-1939

The Reformation Revised? The Contested Reception of the English Reformation in Nineteenth-Century Protestantism

This article charts and discusses the reasons for various significant shifts and developments during the nineteenth century of the reception of the Reformation amongst different denominations and groups within British Protestantism. Attitudes towards Foxes ‘Book of Martyrs’ are explored as but one among several litmus tests of the breakdown of an earlier fragile consensus based on anti-Catholicism as a unifying principle, with the Oxford Movement and the intra-Protestant reaction to it identified as a crucial factor. The selfidentity of the various British Protestant,denominations, notably the various Nonconformist bodies as well as the established Church and evangelicalism per se was at stake in the process of ‘reception’. Moreover, the emergence of more secular Protestant understandings of the significance of the Reformation as an essential stage in the emergence of modernity and liberty, often at odds with nineteenth-century evangelical theological interpretations of its meaning and legacy, are also highlighted. The result is an attempt to transcend the traditional focus on Protestant-Catholic disputes over the Reformation in narrowly bipolar terms.

Music and ultra-modernism in France: a fragile consensus, 1913-1939

Music and Ultra-Modernism in France examines the priorities of three generational groupings: the pre-war Societe Musicale Independente of Ravel and his circle, Les Six in the 1920s and Jeune France in 1936. Exploring the ideas of consensus, resistance and rupture, the book contributes an important and nuanced reflection to the current debate on modernism in music. It considers the roles composers, critics and biographers played in shaping debates about contemporary music, showing how composers including Ravel, Poulenc, Milhaud, Jolivet and Messiaen and critics such as Paul Landormy, Andre Coeuroy and Roland-Manuel often worked in partnership to bring their ideas to a public forum. It also expands the notion of 'interwar' through the essential inclusion of World War I and the years before, reconfiguring the narrative for that period. This book challenges some of the stereotypes that characterise the period, in particular, neo-classicism and the dominance of secularism. It shows how Stravinsky worked closely with Ravel, Satie and Poulenc and invited audiences and critics to rethink what it meant to be modern. The interwar years were also marked by commemoration and loss. Debussy's wartime death in 1918 stimulated competing efforts (by Emile Vuillermoz, Leon Vallas and Henry Prunieres) to shape his legacy. They were motivated by nostalgia for a lost and glorious generation and a commitment to building a legacy of French achievement. Music and Ultra-Modernism in France argues for the vitality of French music in the period 1913-39 and challenges the received view that the period and its musical culture lacked dynamism, innovation or serious musical debate. BARBARA L. KELLY is Professor of Music at Keele University.

Foreign aid and the fragile consensus on state fragility

Most actors in the field of foreign aid agree with the call for coordinated engagement in fragile states in order to more effectively counter the consequences and origins of state failure. However, despite such demands, governments from OECD countries as well as multilateral agencies engaged in fragile states often continue to act in an uncoordinated manner and fail to reach higher levels of harmonisation. Why is effective coordination so hard to achieve? This article argues that three major challenges explain the persistent problems of donor harmonisation in fragile states: (1) the cognitive challenge of explaining the origins of state fragility and deducing effective instruments and interventions, (2) the political challenge of reconciling divergent political motives for engagement, as well as (3) the bureaucratic challenge related to the organisational logic of competing aid agencies.

The common European flexicurity principles: How a fragile consensus was reached

This article analyses the decision-making process underlying the adoption of common EU flexicurity principles. Supporters of the initiative succeeded in convincing the sceptics one by one; the change of government in France and the last-minute support of the European social partner organizations were instrumental in this regard. However, the critics succeeded in weakening the initially strong focus on the transition from job security to employment security and the divisions between insiders and outsiders in the labour market. In contrast to some decision-making on the European Employment Strategy, coalitions seem to have played only a minor role in the flexicurity process, although some actors joined forces in their attempts to influence the outcome.

From competition state to competition states?

The perceived global and demographic upheavals of the last 30 years have fuelled fierce debate as to whether many developed countries still have a welfare state, and if not, what they now have in its place. Such a controversial debate is marked by the most fragile consensus; advanced nations have begun to depart from the trajectories they followed during what has been termed the ‘golden age’ of welfare states. The competition state thesis has featured prominently amongst the more pessimistic accounts of the modern welfare state. This extreme view of the relationship amongst globalisation, the welfare state and the nation state, suggests that the welfare state no longer exists, having been succeeded by the competition state. Such an assertion sat well with the ‘crisis literature’ that surrounded the welfare state during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The privileged position held by the competition state thesis within this literature may owe much to a primarily theoretical body of work to date. This has left many questions unanswered, such as: can the competition state be measured? What does such measurement tell us about the competition state? And, is there more than one type of competition state? This article attempts to furnish the theoretical claims of the competition state thesis with data from a variety of sources, most notably the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This data have been used to index 25 countries in terms of their ‘competition stateness’ providing a fresh perspective with which to view the claims of the competition state thesis. This article represents the first, tentative steps towards fully operationalising and measuring the competition state and interestingly, uncovers two seemingly distinct forms of the competition state.

The Fragile Consensus on State Fragility - On the Difficulties of Donor Coordination

Most actors in the field of foreign aid agree with the call for coordinated engagement in fragile states in order to more effectively counter the consequences and origins of state failure. However, despite such demands, governments from OECD countries as well as multilateral agencies that are engaged in fragile states often continue to act in an uncoordinated manner and fail to reach higher levels of harmonisation. Why is effective coordination so hard to achieve? This article argues that three major challenges explain the persistent problems of donor harmonisation in fragile states: (1) the cognitive challenge of explaining the origins of state fragility and deducing effective instruments and interventions; (2) the political challenge of reconciling divergent political motives for engagement; as well as (3) the bureaucratic challenge related to the organisational logic of competing aid agencies.

Barmen, the Ecumenical Movement, and the Jews: The Missing Thesis

Barmen, the Ecumenical Movement, and the Jews: The Missing Thesis

A Fragile Consensus on Regulating Transnational Corruption - A Case Study of the OFFP and BAE Scandals

The revelation of widespread corruption in the Oil-for-Food Programme and the recent scandal involving the British arms manufacturer BAE Systems threatens to unravel the fragile global consensus on combating corruption. This paper outlines the emerging global consensus and legal framework on corruption and assesses the extent to which this consensus has been undermined by the above mentioned revelations of corruption. Both incidents provide interesting context in which to analyse some of the difficult issues presented in the regulation of transnational corruption. The regulation of transnational corruption provides a framework for analyzing the critical dimensions of the interaction between the norms in various domestic communities and the transnational context of these interactions. The paper argues that the current framework of multilateral efforts to curb transnational corruption is unable to tackle the problem effectively and concludes that the liability framework for engaging in transnational corruption has almost exclusively been the result of political expediency rather than that of empirical information. By examining the multilateral efforts by the international community to combat corruption, the paper generates questions about the status and future direction of the fight against corruption under international law.

International Responses to Iranian Nuclear Defiance: The Non-Aligned Movement and the Issue of Non-Compliance

This article explores the responses of the non-nuclear-weapon states (NNWS) to Iran's vio- lation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), focusing on the stance adopted by members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In February 2006, key NAM members voted to refer Iran to the UN Security Coun- cil in a move that stunned Iranian diplomats, and seemed to signal a collapse in NAM soli- darity on fundamental non-proliferation issues. This article assesses the signifi cance of this event, analysing the extent to which it represents a softening in the ideological divide between NAM and Western approaches to third-party non-compliance, and a convergence in attitudes towards the nuclear non-proliferation regime more generally. It draws on the interlinking concepts of international system, international society and global society to help explain these developments, exploring the hurdles and opportunities associated with any attempt to build on the fragile consensus emerging among the NNWS over the need to respond more decisively to NPT violations.