Parker, Owen (2010) The ethics of cosmopolitan government in Europe : subjects of interest/subjects of right. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

Adopting a Foucauldian critical methodology, this thesis reflects upon the inherent
ambiguities of cosmopolitan government in/of EU(rope), which, it is suggested, are borne
out in the ambiguous relationship between the particular liberal subjects – a ‘subject of
interest’ and ‘subject of right’ - that such government seeks to identify, produce and
foster. Developing Foucault’s own recently published genealogy of liberal government, it
is argued that cosmopolitan government can be conceived as the promotion of
(neo)liberal deregulatory market agendas within and beyond EU(rope): a EU(rope) of free
competitive ‘subjects of interest’, increasingly conceived as entrepreneurs. This, it is
argued, is the constitutive basis of contemporary post-national government in EU(rope)
(Part I). Taking seriously the nuances in Foucault’s analysis, cosmopolitan government
can, however, also be understood in terms of the evocation of EU(rope) as socially just
nation-state rooted in constitution and social-contract: a EU(rope) of ‘subjects of right’ or
citizens. Such a conceptualisation is often evident in scholarly and practical opposition to
the perceived extremes of a ‘market’ Europe, as illustrated via an analysis of Habermas’s
scholarship and French discourses on EU(rope) (Part II). Finally, taking the deliberative
impulse in Habermas much further than he does in his own work on EU(rope), a range of
scholarly interventions and associated institutional innovations have thought/ practiced
cosmopolitan government as a multi-levelled, multi-scalar, open-ended deliberative
endeavour ostensibly respectful of Europe’s extant plurality in theory and practice, but
this is not without its own foundational ontology of the autonomous, rational, reasonable
European subject. Indeed, via an analysis of deliberative forms of governance in
contemporary EU(rope), it is argued that such a conception of rationality or reason is - in
both theory and practice - closely associated with the aforementioned (neo)liberal
rationality of cosmopolitan government to the extent that such rationalities are
EU(rope)’s very condition of possibility (Part III). The thesis demonstrates, then, that the
ambiguous relationship between a ‘subject of interest’ and ‘subject of right’ is not
overcome in either the theory or practice of cosmopolitan government. It concludes by
postulating that there may be good ethico-political reasons for giving up the attempt to
overcome such ambiguity.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General) J Political Science > JZ International relations
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Europe -- Politics and government, European Union
Official Date:	August 2010
Dates:	Date Event August 2010 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Politics and International Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Rosamond, Ben ; Watson, Matthew, 1969-
Sponsors:	Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC)
Extent:	vii, 390 leaves
Language:	eng

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