ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a central theme of this book, namely, the relationship between differentiation and domination. The chapter introduces two new terms to improve our understanding of this relationship, namely, differentiation configuration and differentiating shock. The terms are necessary, given that the relationship between differentiation and domination takes on distinct shapes in the EU-context. Differentiation configuration refers to how territory, function, governing hierarchy, and citizens’ rights and obligations are configured and combined within a given political system. It follows that the EU has a distinct differentiation configuration. Differentiating shock is a form of upset that is selective, uneven, or varied in its orientation, its unfolding, or its effects, so that the new pattern of differentiation is associated with an increase in dominance. The purpose of this chapter is: (a) to clarify what is meant by a differentiating shock (conceptual specification); (b) to develop an analytical framework for understanding how or to what extent the EU has been experiencing differentiating shocks; and (c) to discern the implications for the EU as a democratic political order.
This undertaking is theoretically rewarding in that it improves our understanding of differentiation, and the conditions under which differentiation is associated with domination, be it understood as dominating or as being dominated.
