Concepts as Analytical Categories in the EU Multilevel System

Political concepts serve as tools for describing, analysing, explaining, and understanding research objects in political science ‒ concepts are used as analytical and theoretical categories. But, this is a key insight of conceptual history, concepts are not static and immutable, but themselves contested and controversial and an object of politics. Moreover, European integration decisively affects concepts as analytical and theoretical categories since it changes the political practices they refer to. Parliaments, citizens, governments, and states, become part of a multilevel regime: national parliaments lose competencies and develop new institutional working routines, while the European Parliament has gained in influence. Citizenship evolved into multi-level citizenship, spread between the member states and the EU. National governments become part of a multi-level EU regime with governmental institutions on the EU level as well. The paper will discuss the analytical problems resulting from this scenario and sketch possible ways to deal with them.