How does the EU tick? Five propositions on political time

Abstract: In what manner is political time institutionalized in the political system of the EU? This article advances five propositions on political time in the EU and highlights their implications for the workings of the EU. The propositions stress: (i) the absence of a dominant EU political cycle, which creates problems of mobilization and synchronization, but also allows for temporal plurality; (ii) an emphasis on linear political time, associated with ongoingness and open-endedness, as opposed to cyclical political time, which favours discontinuity in institutional practices and policies; (iii) intensive bargaining over time-setting, which encourages governing by timetable; (iv) the sensitivity of EU political time to member state influence, on the one hand, and (v) the Europeanization of political time in the member states, on the other. The balances struck in the temporal constitution of the EU are critical to its future.

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