Between Theory and Politics, Moving European Concepts: National and Transnational Controversies Around a Post-National Concept

The European Union (EU) is still in the making, and so are the political and scientific discourses held about it. Consequently, they sometimes appear as an incoherent patchwork randomly mixing concepts from various backgrounds. My purpose here is to understand the formation and evolution of this patchwork, i.e. to analyze the processes by which certain concepts succeed or fail to become part of these discourses. I will argue that conceptual change in the EU highly depends on transnational processes involving a community of scholars and politicians who shape the concepts. Using textual and contextual controversy analysis, I will focus on a case study: the career of the concept of “constitutional patriotism”, made famous by Jürgen Habermas. First used in a specific German context, it has since been defined by scholars and politicians as a central feature of the post-national conception of European integration – which claims to be the best alternative to the old national framework. Surprisingly, however, it is still often argued that it’s a “German” concept (Turner, 2004). This relies on the idea that it remained unchanged until present debates. Nevertheless, this view can be challenged, if reconsidering how the concept was translated in other contexts, and trivialized in the European discourses. I will thus ask how the uses of “constitutional patriotism” evolved in the process of becoming part of a discourse on and of the EU. I will first insist on the difference of national politicizations of the concept in French and German contexts. Then, I will point the neutralization of the concept in European arena through technical uses. Finally, it will appear that the main changes involved are not to find in the definition but in the stakes and connotations relevant for the concept. A conceptual history of EU therefore requires a multi-level analysis of controversies.