Legitimizing the euro-'polity' and its 'regime': The normative turn in EU studies

European Journal of Political Theory

Volumn 2, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 7-34

  Bellamy, Richard ^a   Castiglione, Dario ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF EXETER   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Constitutionalism; EU; Governance; Legitimacy; Normative theory

Indexed keywords

EID: 14544305799     PISSN: 14748851     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1474885103002001277     Document Type: Article

References (136)

1. This article develops the argument of R. Bellamy and D. Castiglione (2000a) 'The Normative Turn in European Studies: Legitimacy, Identity and Democracy', RUSEL Working Paper 38/2000, http://www.ex.ac.uk/shipss/politics/ research/rusel.htm.
2. We are grateful for comments on that earlier paper, especially J. Shaw (1999) 'Constitutionalism in the European Union', Journal of European Public Policy special issue 6(4): 579-97;
3. J. Shaw (2000a) 'The "Governance" Research Agenda and the "Constitutional Question'", in Governance and Citizenship in Europe: Some Research Directions, pp. 22-5.
4. Brussels: European Commission. D. Chryssochoou (2000) 'Metatheory and the Study of the European Union: Capturing the Normative Turn', European Integration 22: 123-44.
5. D. Chryssochoou (2001) Theorizing European Integration, ch. 6. London: Sage.
6. The literature involving the normative analysis of the EU is now growing apace. By and large the lawyers promoted this turn, perhaps because law - especially constitutional law - is explicitly a normative order. Any list will necessarily exclude important work, so the following is meant to be illustrative rather than exhaustive: B. De Witte (1991) 'Droit communitaire et valeurs constitutionelles nationales', Droits 14: 87-96.
7. J. Habermas (1992) 'Citizenship and National Identity: Some Reflections on the Future of Europe', Praxis International 12(1): 1-19.
8. N. MacCormick (1995) 'The Maastricht-Urteil: Sovereignty Now', European Law Journal 1: 255-62.
9. D. Wincott (1995a) 'Political Theory, Law and European Union', in J. Shaw and G. More (eds) New Legal Dynamics of European Union. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
10. N Walker (1996) 'European Constitutionalism and European Integration', Public Law 266-90.
11. G. De Búrca (1996) 'The Quest for Legitimacy in the European Union', Modern Law Review 59: 349-76.
12. D. Curtin (1997) Postnational Democracy: The European Union in Search of a Political Philosophy. The Hague: Kluwer Law International.
13. P. Craig (1997) 'Democracy and Rule-Making within the EC: An Empirical and Normative Assessment', European Law Journal 3(2): 105-30.
14. N MacCormick (1997) 'Democracy, Subsidiarity, and Citizenship in the "European Commonwealth'", Law and Philosophy 16: 331-56.
15. J. Shaw (1998) 'The Interpretation of European Union Citizenship', Modern Law Review 61(3): 293-317.
16. J. Shaw (2000b) 'Process and Constitutional Discourse in the European Union', Journal of Law and Society 27(1): 4-37.
17. J. Shaw (2000c) 'Constitutionalism and Flexibility in the EU: Developing a Relational Approach', in G. De Búrca and J. Scott (eds) Constitutional Change in the EU: From Uniformity to Flexibility, pp. 337-58. Oxford: Hart.
18. J.H.H. Weiler (1999) The Constitution of Europe: 'Do the New Clothes Have an Emperor?' and Other Essays on European Integration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
19. Z. Bankowski and A. Scott (eds) (2000) The European Union and its Order. Oxford: Blackwell. More recently, however, there has been a growing body of work that has built on collaboration between political theory and political science.
20. See especially the following edited collections: P. Lehning and A. Weale (eds) (1997) Citizenship, Democracy and Justice in the New Europe. London: Routledge.
21. A. Follesdal and P. Koslowski (eds) (1997) Democracy and the European Union. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
22. M. Nentwich and A. Weale (1998) Political Theory and the European Union. London: Routledge.
23. E.O. Eriksen and J.E. Fossum (eds) (2000) Democracy in the European Union: Integration through Deliberation? London: Routledge.
24. See too D. Beetham and C. Lord (1998) Legitimacy and the European Union. Harlow: Longman.
25. A. Wiener (1998) 'European' Citizenship Practice: Building Institutions of a Non-State. Oxford: Westview.
26. D. Chryssochoou (1998) Democracy in the European Union. London: I.B. Taurus.
27. P.C. Schmitter (2000) How to Democratize the European Union . . . And Why Bother? Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.
28. In contributions to some of these volumes and in collaborative volumes of our own, we have attempted a similar mix that also draws on the legal literature - notably, R. Bellamy, V. Bufacchi and D. Castiglione (eds) (1995) Democracy and Constitutional Culture in the Union of Europe. London: Lothian Foundation Press.
29. R. Bellamy and D. Castiglione (eds) (1996) Constitutionalism in Transformation. Oxford: Blackwell.
30. R. Bellamy (ed.) (1996) Constitutionalism, Democracy and Sovereignty: American and European Perspectives. Aldershot: Avebury.
31. R. Bellamy and A. Warleigh (eds) (2001) Citizenship and Governance in the European Union. London: Continuum.
32. See too R. Bellamy and D. Castiglione (1997b) 'Building the Union: The Nature of Sovereignty in the Political Architecture of Europe', Law and Philosophy 16: 421-45.
33. R. Bellamy and D. Castiglione (2000b) 'Democracy, Sovereignty and the Constitution of the European Union: The Republican Alternative to Liberalism' in Bankowski and Scott (eds) (2000), The European Union and its Order, pp. 170-90.
34. R. Bellamy and A. Warleigh (1998) 'From an Ethics of Integration to an Ethics of Participation: Citizenship and the Future of the European Union', Millennium: Journal of International Studies 27: 447-70.
35. For a recent overview, see H. Friese and P. Wagner (2002) 'Survey Article: The Nascent Political Philosophy of the European Polity', Journal of Political Philosophy 10(3): 342-64.
36. This has been particularly true of the functionalist and (in a different way) the liberal intergovernmentalist approaches discussed in the second section.
37. J. Pinder (1994) 'Building the Union: Policy, Reform, Constitution', in A. Duff, J. Pinder and R. Pryce (eds) Maastrict and Beyond: Building the European Union, p. 284. London: Routledge.
38. J. Habermas (1999) 'The European Nation-State and the Pressures of Globalisation', New Left Review 235: 46-59.
39. Beetham and Lord (n. 1); Bellamy and Warleigh (1998, in n. 1).
40. H. Wallace (1985) 'Negotiations and Coalition Formation in the European Community', Government and Opposition 20: 453-72.
41. H. Wallace (1996) 'Politics and Policy in the EU: The Challenge of Governance', in H. Wallace and W. Wallace (eds) Policy Making in the European Union, 3rd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
42. O. Elgström and C. Jönsson (2000) 'Negotiation in the European Union: Bargaining or Problem-Solving?', Journal of European Public Policy 7(5): 684-704.
43. See the overview of this approach in Beetham and Lord (1998, in n. 1), ch. 4.
44. M. Tachtenfuchs, T. Diez and S. Jung (1998) 'Which Europe? Conflicting Models of a Legitimate European Political Order', European Journal of International Relations 4(4): 409-45.
45. e.g. A. Duff (1994) 'Building a Parliamentary Europe', Government and Opposition 29: 147-65.
46. e.g. N Barry (1994) 'Sovereignty, the Rule of Recognition and Constitutional Stability in Britain', Hume Papers on Public Policy 2(1): 10-27.
47. De Búrca (1996, in n. 1).
48. R.J. Dalton (1999) 'Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies', in P. Norris (ed.) Critical Citizens: Global Support for Democratic Governance, pp. 75-6. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
49. I. McAllister (1999) 'The Economic Performance of Governments', in Norris (n. 11), pp. 201-3.
50. Habermas has argued that rights per se can provide the focus of a 'constitutional patriotism' for the EU: (1998) The Inclusion of the Other: Studies in Political Theory, p. 118, pp. 225-6. Cambridge: Polity.
51. But an abstract agreement on the appropriate external criteria any 'polity' or 'regime' should meet will not tell you which 'polity' they ought to be realized in, or even the best form of 'regime' to do so. Both of these involve internal forms of legitimation that Habermas either ignores or simply assumes match his argument. For an explicit critique of Habermas' position, see R. Bellamy (2000a) 'Citizenship Beyond the Nation State: The Case of Europe', in N. O'Sullivan (ed.) Political Theory in Transition, pp. 99-103. London: Routledge.
52. F. Scharpf (1999) Governing in Europe: Effective and Democratic?, pp. 2, 6, 23, 203. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
53. e.g. G. Majone (1996) 'Regulatory Legitimacy', in G. Majone et al., Regulating Europe, pp. 284-301, especially pp. 284, 287. London: Routledge.
54. G. Majone (1998) 'Europe's "Democratic Deficit": The Question of Standards', European Law Journal 4: 5-28.
55. E. Haas (1958) The Uniting of Europe: Political, Social and Economic Forces 1950-57, pp. 79-80. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
56. Haas (n. 16).
57. A. Moravcsik (1993) 'Preferences and Power in the European Community: A Liberal Intergovernmentalist Approach', Journal of Common Market Studies 31: 473-524, 481.
58. A. Moravcsik (1999) The Choice for Europe: Social Purpose and State Power From Messina to Maastricht, pp. 20, 473. London: UCL Press.
59. Moravcsik (1999, in n. 18), pp. 473-5.
60. Moravcsik (1993, in n. 18), pp. 509-10 and (1999, in n. 18), p. 35.
61. Moravcsik (1993, in n. 18), p. 497 and (1999, in n. 18), pp. 36-8, 475-7.
62. Moravcsik (1993, in n. 18), pp. 512-14 and (1999, in n. 18), pp. 73-7, 485-9.
63. As noted, countries differ widely in their views of the EU. But although 51% of European citizens in the most recent poll expressed support for the Union, only four member states (Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg and Ireland) recorded a majority satisfied with the way democracy works in the EU. By contrast, over 50% in all but one member state (Italy) were satisfied with national democracy. (Figures from Eurobarometer Report 52 (April 2000), based on research Oct.-Nov. 1999.)
64. O. Waever (1995) 'Identity, Integration and Security: Solving the Sovereignty Puzzle in EU Studies', Journal of International Affairs 48(2): 389-431.
65. T. Diez (1999) 'Riding the AM-Track through Europe; or, The Pitfalls of a Rationalist Journey through European Integration', Millennium: Journal of International Studies 28(2): 360.
66. H. Wallace (1990) 'Making Multilateral Negotiations Work', in W. Wallace (ed.) The Dynamics of European Integration, p. 215. London: Pinter.
67. Moravcsik (1999, n. 18), p. 477.
68. Ibid. p. 478.
69. Ibid. pp. 6-7, 473-7.
70. Ibid. pp. 60-2.
71. M. Hollis and S. Smith (1990) Explaining and Understanding International Relations, pp. 137-41. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
72. e.g. D. Wincott (1995b) 'Institutional Interaction and European Integration: Towards an Everyday Critique of Liberal Intergovernmentalism', Journal of Common Market Studies 33: 597-609.
73. e.g. see M.P. Vink (2001) 'The Limited Europeanisation of Domestic Citizenship Polity: Evidence from the Netherlands', Journal of Common Market Studies 39: 875-96.
74. H. Wallace (1990) 'Making Multilateral Negotiations Work', in W. Wallace (ed.) The Dynamics of European Integration, p. 225. London: Pinter. Diez (n. 24), pp. 361-3.
75. e.g. P. Pierson (1996) 'The Path to European Union: An Historical Institutionalist Account', Comparative Political Studies 29: 123-64.
76. T. Christiansen, K. Jorgensen and A. Wiener (1999) 'The Social Construction of Europe', in T. Christiansen, K. Jorgensen and A. Wiener (eds) The Social Construction of Europe, special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy 6: 528-44.
77. F.W. Sharpf (1988) 'The Joint Decision Trap', Public Administration 66: 239-78.
78. Moravcsik (1999, in n. 18), pp. 491-4.
79. e.g. R.H. Bork (1990) The Tempting of America. New York: Free Press.
80. For a critique, C. Sunstein (1993) The Partial Constitution, ch. 4. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
81. Diez (n. 24).
82. For a study of how such issues structured German policy towards EMU, see M. Merlingen (2001) 'Identity, Politics and Germany's Post-TEU Policy on EMU', Journal of Common Market Studies 39: 463-83.
83. D. Imig and S. Tarrow (eds) (2000) Contentious Europeans: Protest and Politics in an Emerging Polity. Boulder, CO: Rowman & Littlefield.
84. e.g. Cowan v. Le Trésor public Case 186/87 [1989] ECR 195,
85. Konstantinidis v. Stadt Altensteig Case C-168/91 [1993] ECR I-1191.
86. J. Checkel (1999) 'Norms, Institutions, and National Identity in Contemporary Europe', International Studies Quarterly 43: 83-114.
87. G. Marks, L. Hooghe and K. Blank (1996) 'European Integration from the 1980s: State-Centric v. Multi-level Governance', Journal of Common Market Studies 34: 341-2.
88. Schmitter (n. 1), pp. 15-19.
89. It should be noted that similar considerations also work against attempts to distinguish different levels of analysis within EU decision-making, from historic decisions about the nature of the EU system to sub-systemic policy-shaping (J. Peterson (1995) 'Decision-Making in the European Union: Towards a Framework for Analysis', Journal of European Public Policy 21(1): 69-93). Because the four dimensions of subjects, sphere, scope and style are related, with a continuous interaction between European and member-state considerations amongst the relevant actors, super-systemic issues will be raised in ordinary policy-making and policy issues arise in historic decisions on the nature of the system. Differences of emphasis may of course exist, but they will not be clear-cut (a point, to be fair, that Peterson partly concedes at p. 85).
90. Marks et al. (n. 44), pp. 346-7.
91. Ibid. pp. 358, 361.
92. Ibid. p. 364.
93. J. Greenwood (1997) Representing Interests in the European Union. London: Macmillan.
94. C. Jeffrey (2000) 'Sub-National Mobilization and European Integration', Journal of Common Market Studies 38(1): 1-25.
95. A. Stone Sweet and W. Sandholtz (1997) 'European Integration and Supranational Governance', Journal of European Public Policy 4(3): 305. Christiansen, Jorgensen, and Wiener (n. 35), pp. 541-2.
96. J. Checkel (2001) 'Constructing European Institutions', in M. Aspinall and G. Schneider (eds) The Rules of Integration: Institutionalist Approaches to the Study of Europe. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
97. Most influentially J. Habermas (2001) 'Why Europe Needs a Constitution', New Left Review 11: 5-26.
98. See J.G. Ruggie (1993) 'Territoriality and Beyond: Problematizing Modernity in International Relations', International Organisation 47(1): 172.
99. For a contrary view see C. Lord and D. Beetham (2001) 'Legitimizing the EU: Is there a "Post-Parliamentary Basis" for its Legitimation?', Journal of Common Market Studies 39: 443-62.
100. J. Tully (2002) 'The Unfreedom of the Moderns in Comparison to their Ideals of Constitutional Democracy', Modern Law Review 65: 204-28.
101. R. Bellamy (2001) 'The "Right to have Rights": Citizenship Practice and the Political Constitution of the EU', in Bellamy and Warleigh (n. 1), pp. 41-70.
102. R. Dworkin (1995) 'Constitutionalism and Democracy', European Journal of Philosophy 3: 2-11.
103. J. Waldron (1999) Law and Disagreement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
104. R. Bellamy (1999) Liberalism and Pluralism: Towards a Politics of Compromise, ch. 7. London: Routledge.
105. Bellamy (n. 57).
106. J. Tully (2001a) 'La Conception républicaine de la citoyenneté dans les sociétés multiculturelles et multinationales', Politique et Sociétés 21(1): 123-47.
107. Shaw (1999, 2000b, 2000c, all in n. 1).
108. 'Solange I', Internationale Handelsgesellschaft [1974] 2 CMLR 549.
109. 'Solange II', Wunsche Handelsgesellschaft [1987] 3 CMLR 225.
110. 'Solange II, Brunner' [1994] 1 CMLR 57.
111. MacCormick (n. 1).
112. Weiler (n. 1): ch. 3 suggests this sort of solution.
113. e.g. Cinéthéque v. Fédérations nationales des cinémas français Cases 60-1/84 [1985] ECR 2605 and
114. ERT v. Dimotiki Etairia Piliroforissis Case C-260/89 [1991] ECR I-2925å.
115. e.g. SPUC (Ireland) ltd v/ Grogan Case C-159/90 [1991] ECR1-4685.
116. In his study of the spread of constitutionally based judicial review in Europe, Alec Stone Sweet notes how courts attempt to avoid legitimation problems by making pragmatic compromises that anticipate and so defer to what they presume will be the majority view: Stone Sweet (2000) Governing with Judges: Constitutional Politics in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press. As we have noted elsewhere, and indicated above, this tactic is at best imperfect, see Bellamy (1999, in n. 59), ch. 7; Bellamy (2001, in n. 57).
117. Waldron (n. 59).
118. Majone (n. 15).
119. Shaw (2000b, in n. 1), 24, 25-9.
120. Shaw (2000b, in n. 1), 34-6. G De Búrca (2001) 'The Drafting of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights', European Law Review 26: 126-38.
121. R. Bellamy and D. Castiglione (2001) 'Tra retorica e simbolismo: La Carta dei diritti fondamentali dell'Unione europea', in 'La Carta dei diritti fondamentali. Verso una Costituzione europea?', (ed.) Barbara Henry and Anna Loretoni, Quaderni Forum 15(2): 67-74.
122. Bellamy and Castiglione (1997a) 'The Normative Challenge of a European Polity: Cosmopolitan and Communitarian Models Compared, Criticised and Combined', in Follesdal and Koslowski (n. 1), pp. 254-84; Bellamy and Castiglione (2000b) (n. 1).
123. T. Banchoff and M.P. Smith (eds) (1999) Legitimacy and the European Union: The Contested Polity. London: Routledge.
124. P. Hirst and G. Thompson (1996) Globalisation in Question, pp. 183-4. Cambridge: Polity.
125. P.C. Schmitter (2001) 'What is There to Legitimise in the European Union . . . And How Might This be Accomplished?' Florence: EUI mimeo.
126. J.H.H. Weiler (1996) 'European Neo-Constitutionalism: In Search of Foundations for the European Constitutional Order' in Bellamy and Castiglione (n. 1), p. 111.
127. S. Anderson and T. Burns (1996) 'The European Union and the Erosion of Parliamentary Democracy: A Study of Post-Parliamentary Governance', in S. Anderson and K. Eliassen (eds) The European Union: How Democratic is it?, pp. 227-67. London: Sage.
128. N. Bernard (2000) 'Legitimising EU Law: Is Social Dialogue the Way Forward? Some Reflections around the UEAPME Case', in J. Shaw (ed.) Social Law and Policy in an Evolving European Union, pp. 279-302. Oxford: Hart.
129. Bellamy (n. 59), ch. 5; Bellamy and Castiglione (2000b, in n. 1); Bellamy (2001, in n. 57).
130. J. Tully (2001b) 'Introduction', in A.-G. Gagnon and J. Tully (eds) Multinational Democracy, pp. 1-34. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
131. P. Pettit (1999) 'Republican Liberty, Contestatory Democracy', in C. Hacker-Cordon and I. Shapiro (eds) Democracy's Value. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
132. R. Bellamy (2000b) 'Dealing with Difference: Four Models of Pluralist Polities', Parliamentary Affairs: A Journal of Comparative Politics 53(1): 215-16.
133. Anderson and Burns (n. 80).
134. A. Warleigh (2001) '"Europeanising" Civil Society: NGOs as Agents of Political Socialisation', Journal of Common Market Studies 39: 619-39.
135. These and other proposals are made in D. Curtin (1996) 'The European Union, Civil Society and Participatory Democracy', Collected Courses of the Academy of European Law, part V Florence: EUI. Schmitter (n. 1). See too Craig (n. 1), 119-24, who draws out their republican potential.
136. See Bellamy and Castiglione (2000) and R. Bellamy (forthcoming) 'Sovereignty, Post-Sovereignty and Pre-Sovereignty: Reconceptualising the State, Rights and Democracy in the EU', in N. Walker (ed.) Sovereignty in Transition. Oxford: Hart. Although Friese and Wagner (n. 1), p. 355, may be correct to describe our thesis as a 'weak' form of republicanism when compared to Habermas's 'strong' version, we trust it is evident from the above that they are mistaken to suggest that we 'take it for granted that there is agreement about the Europeanness of many questions'. Indeed, our scheme is motivated in large part by our disputing that such agreement exists, with us looking to deliberation within this multilayered setting to create it.