Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Multilingualism is an ever-present feature in numerous political contexts around the world, including both multilingual states and international organizations. It is also an increasingly important reality in a globalized world that consequential political decisions are negotiated between politicians who do not share a common native language. Nils Ringe uses the case of the European Union to investigate how politicians' reliance on shared foreign languages and translation services affects politics and policy-making. In-depth interviews with almost 100 policymakers and language service providers in the EU's main institutions, paired with quantitative and linguistic data, show multilingualism to be an inherent, ubiquitous, and consequential feature of EU politics and vividly illustrate how it influences political interactions, deliberations, and negotiations.

Existing research at the intersection of language and politics would suggest that multilingualism makes EU politics more conflictual. This is not the case, however. Instead, multilingualism depoliticizes policy-making, meaning that it reduces its political nature and potential for conflict. That is because both foreign language use and reliance on translation result in communication that is simple, utilitarian, neutralized, and involves commonly shared phrases and expressions, which masks the national and political backgrounds, preferences, and priorities of EU actors. Policymakers also tend to disregard politically charged language because it might not reflect what a speaker meant to say, and they are constrained in their ability to use vague or ambiguous language to gloss over disagreements by the need for consistency across languages.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgments (p. ix)
• List of Figures (p. xiii)
• List of Tables (p. xv)
• 1 The Language(s) of Politics: Multilingual Policymaking in the European Union (p. 1)
• 2 Multilingualism in the EU: How It Works (p. 26)
• 3 The EU's Language Regime: Institutional Stability and Change (p. 81)
• 4 Foreign Language Use and Depoliticization (p. 113)
• 5 "EU English" and Depoliticization (p. 140)
• 6 Translation, Interpretation, and Depoliticization (p. 160)
• 7 Conclusion (p. 187)
• Appendix: Multilingual Lawmaking under the Ordinary Legislative Procedure (p. 205)
• Notes (p. 211)
• Bibliography (p. 233)
• Index (p. 257)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Ringe (Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison), a well-known professor of political science, has written an excellent book on the politics of language within the institutions of the European Union. The first three chapters establish the multilingual, policy-making context in the EU, including how successive EU enlargements impacted the language regime. The next three chapters explain how the EU language regime tends to depoliticize policy making within the various EU institutions. Ringe shows that EU multilingual policy can be cumbersome and costly, but it does work rather well by encouraging simple, utilitarian, and neutralized communication. The concluding chapter synthesizes how various facets of EU multilingual policy making tend to depoliticize the policy process. Ringe makes a compelling case for the book's major theme of depoliticization, and he is correct that the depoliticizing tendency of EU multilingual policy making contrasts with the broader literature on comparative language politics, which emphasizes the frequent disruptive impact of language on domestic and international politics. In addition to notes, this book includes a short, helpful appendix on EU multilingual lawmaking procedure. Summing Up: Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. --Michael A. Morris, emeritus, Clemson University

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Nils Ringe is Professor and Jean Monnet Chair at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.