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The Democratizing Dynamics of a European Public Sphere

Towards a Theory of Democratic Functionalism

Klaus Eder

HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITY, BERLIN, GERMANY

The riddle of how to democratize the multi-level polity of the EU is answered by pointing to the empirical impact of an unfolding European public sphere. It is argued that there is a self-constituting dynamic of a European public sphere which abets the coupling of transnational spaces of communication with the institutional integration of the EU. From this perspective, democracy is not external to the EU, it is already part of the logic of European institution-building and governance and is fostered by collective learning processes in which definitions of the collective good as well as conditions for appropriate forms of political participation are negotiated. In discussing the case of the EU’s constitutional reform, a theory of democratic functionalism is proposed which accounts for this specific form of democratization of the EU.

Key Words: collective learning • democratic theory • European Constitution • European integration • public space

European Journal of Social Theory, Vol. 7, No. 1, 5-25 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/1368431004040016


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