Open AccessSelling TTIP: The European Commission’s information policy and the spectre of public opinion
Author(s) -
Luděk Stavinoha
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
european journal of communication
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.96
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1460-3705
pISSN - 0267-3231
DOI - 10.1177/0267323120978719
Subject(s) - transatlantic trade and investment partnership , deliberation , democratic deficit , politics , commission , european union , political science , public administration , public opinion , civil society , democracy , public sphere , freedom of information , deliberative democracy , negotiation , general partnership , sociology , law , economics , economic policy
This article examines the European Commission’s information policy during the heavily politicised Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. Through the methodologically innovative use of Freedom of Information requests, it moves beyond official discourse to reveal how internal deliberation among Commission officials is preoccupied with monitoring and containing civil society mobilisation against the deal. Underpinned by elitist conceptions of democracy, public opinion emerges as a problem to be solved through strategic public relations, despite the Commission’s discursive commitments to greater transparency and political dialogue with citizens. The findings challenge the widely-held notion that a ‘communication deficit’ between European Union institutions and their publics is at the root of the perennially elusive formation of a European public sphere. Instead, approaching TTIP as a key frontline in the struggle over post-democracy, I conclude that antipublic ideas encoded in the Commission’s information policy are reflective of historically engrained institutional ambivalence towards public-political participation.