Cosmopolitan Government in Europe: Citizens and Entrepreneurs in Postnational Politics

The invocation of 'the market' has been omnipresent in media discussions of Europe at the beginning of the current decade. On the one hand, 'the market' particularly as financial market is presented as that to which EU member states must collectively respond; in this sense it is the very telos of government and that which dictates individual and collective identity. On the other hand, 'the market' is that which government must seek to tame; in this sense it is the servant of government and ought not be permitted to undermine supposedly deeper collective identities and solidarities associated with the imaginary of social contract and nation-state. There is, then, a confusion or ambiguity at the heart of the contemporary European project, which is starkly reflected in its contemporary government. It is such ambiguities a deeper, existential, 'crisis' - which this study seeks to expose and critically reflect upon. This book, through its examination and evaluation of cosmopolitan government in Europe through a Foucauldian lens, juxtaposes the scholarly and institutional discourses that can be associated with market and law, highlighting the manner in which they at once repel and rely upon one another: their inherently ambiguous relationship. Parker argues for a pragmatic approach to post-national government that is cognisant of the difficult relationship between subject of interest (entrepreneur) and subject of right (citizen), while contingently recognising that the former has been excessively privileged in the context of the post-national government of Europe. Cosmopolitan Governmentalitiesis an important and timely intervention in contemporary debates about democratic Europe and its shortcomings and will be of great interest to students and scholars of international political theory, European studies and international political economy.