From EURATOM to “Complex Systems”: Technology and European Government

In a recent series of papers written for the European Commission's Cellule de Prospective (CdP), Notis Lebessis and others have begun to think about the European Union - its political future, its accomplishments, and the challenges facing it - in terms of a social condition they define as complexity. In brief, the CdP suggests that the EU represents a peculiarly inventive and functional response to the increasingly complex environment within which modern government must operate. As social and economic life has become more complex, the CdP argues, the forms of network organization associated with the European Union have become more and more relevant. challenges presented by contemporary society in terms of complexity, diversity and interdependency mean that these traditional forms [e.g., national parliamentary politics] are stretched beyond their limits and that new forms begin to emerge.1 At the same time, knowledge has acquired a particular centrality to the constitution of the contemporary European system of government. The role of the public authorities is to escape from the constraints of the institutional (bureaucrat/ expert) construction of problems and solutions.2 The task of the EU is to encourage participation and to foster an economy based on collective learning. The conclusion is intended to be both descriptive and normative. The CdP's reports both account for the development of the EU in the past and provide blueprints for the future. Their publication (both internally and on the internet) is intended to be much more than an analysis of EU government - to be, indeed, a significant political event itself.