THE TRANSFORMATION OF CITIZENSHIP IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: ELECTORAL RIGHTS AND THE RESTRUCTURING OF POLITICAL SPACE by JO SHAW
| Published date | 01 September 2009 |
| Date | 01 September 2009 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2009.00477.x |
| Author | DANIEL WINCOTT |
THE TRANSFORMATION OF CITIZENSHIP IN THE EUROPEAN
UNION: ELECTORAL RIGHTS AND THE RESTRUCTURING OF
POLITICAL SPACE by JO SHAW
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, 398 pp., £65.00 (hbk),
£25.99 (pbk))
Citizenship, Jo Shaw argues, has become `a prism of analysis for the human
condition', a concept to which `multiple functions' are ascribed, expressing:
notions of identity, both in terms of commonality (citizenship as one of the ties
that bind within communities) and in terms of difference (citizenship as
expressing multivalent identities (p. 37).
In fact, for Shaw, `difficulties' arise when `citizenship' becomes `too
multivalent' to do the analytical and normative work expected of it by `many
contemporary scholars'. It is with approval that Shaw quotes Christian
Joppke's critical remarks on `hyphenated citizenships' (such as sexual or
ecological citizenship), going on to suggest that these perspectives make it
impossible to study citizenship as `a distinct and clearly demarcated object'.
Instead they transform it into `a conceptual metaphor for a bewildering
variety of rights-based claims in contemporary societies' (p. 35). Shaw's
penultimate remarks in her richly researched and complex monograph on
citizenship, electoral rights, and multi-level governance in Europe are in this
same critical spirit: she upbraids those who attempt `to see all social,
political and legal phenomena through the prism of citizenship, when at
times other tools such as equality or justice may be more useful as frames of
analysis' (p. 365).
Shaw negotiates these difficulties by maintaining a generally tight focus
on a particular aspect of contemporary European socio-political life ±
electoral rights ± where the connection to citizenship is impossible to
gainsay. Her remarkable achievement has been to illuminate so many
aspects of the European Union ± a large, unwieldy, often impenetrable
entity ± using this seemingly narrow and conventional approach. Shaw's
analysis focuses primarily on the right of individuals to vote in local and EU
elections in their place of residence on the basis of EU citizenship. She also
addresses issues surrounding EU citizens' eligibility to vote in state-wide
and `regional' elections as well as the questions of `alien suffrage' or the
voting rights of `third-country nationals' within the EU. Here, however,
interesting questions emerge from Shaw's analysis even for the specific
topic of the right to vote, in relation to the extension of (local) electoral
rights to include legally resident third-country nationals. Does ± and will ±
the figure of the citizen remain central to our understanding of suffrage at
the local level? If not, why would the justification for residence-based
electoral rights stop at the local level? After all, established residents also
generally contribute to the state in which they reside (for example, by
paying taxes) and are bound by its rules.
426
ß2009 The Author. Journal Compilation ß2009 Cardiff University Law School
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