Description: Multilingualism depoliticizes policymaking in the EU
Review Quotes:
The Language(s) of Politics provides a deeply insightful rendering of daily multiculturalism in the European Union's institutions. Nils Ringe paints a vivid picture of how Europe's officials communicate and deliberate in a polity with 23 official languages. Based on some hundred in-depth interviews, textual analysis, and quantitative data on institutional meetings he concludes that multilingualism depoliticizes EU politics because it rewards neutral, decultured language over expressive, symbolic language. Interestingly, this places depoliticization within the institutions through multilingualism directly at odds with increased politicization in the wider EU society. Essential reading for EU scholars and EU participants.
-- "Liesbet Hooghe, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the European University Institute,"