THE UNFINISHED DEMOCRATIZATION OF EUROPE by Erik Oddvar Eriksen ( 9780199572519 )

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Title:

THE UNFINISHED DEMOCRATIZATION OF EUROPE

By:

Erik Oddvar Eriksen

Format:

Hardback

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£122.50

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£107.19

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ISBN 10:

0199572518

ISBN 13:

9780199572519

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Publisher:

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

10 September, 2009

Pages:

286

Description:

The widening and deepening of the European Union have brought to the fore the question of democracy at the European level. This book contributes to democratic theory under conditions of globalization and complex interdependence as well as to the understanding of the EU from a democratic point of view.

Synopsis:

The widening and deepening of the European Union have brought to the fore the question of democracy at the European level. The system of domination already in place at the European level requires and aspires to direct legitimation - from the citizens themselves and not merely indirect, derived from the Member Nation States. Such can only be achieved by making the EU into a democratic polity. But can democracy be disassociated from its putative nation-state foundation? A revised concept of democratic legitimacy based on discourse theory is developed. It is argued that post-national democracy requires a constitution but not necessarily a state. The Union amounts to less than a state but more than an international organisation and a system of transnational governance. In the political theory of the multilevel constellation that makes up the EU, it is conceived of as a regional subset of an emerging cosmopolitan order. The EU is a state-less government. As it is not premised on group identity, it is able to accommodate a high measure of variance with regard to territory and function. The book analyzes the reforms undertaken to bring the EU 'closer to the citizens'.It documents elements of democratization and reduction of arbitrary power. However, democracy requires that the citizens can approve or reject the laws they are subjected to. Since the institutional as well as the civic conditions under which a public justification process would be deemed legitimate are not in place, European post-national democracy remains an unaccomplished mission.

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Imprint:

Oxford University Press

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Some other items by this author:

ARGUING FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS (HB)

ARGUING FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS (PB)

CONTESTING POLITICAL DIFFERENTIATION (HB)

DEMOCRACY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION