Σύγχρονες ιδιότητες της Ευρωπαϊκής ενοποίησης

Abstract

The progressive fusion of federal principles, confederal structures and consociational processes in the European Union of the 1990s has awakened a sense of renewed theoretical excitement. This article aims to assess the dialectics of theory-building in the larger polity, and reveal alternative ways of reconceptualising its current political properties and functions. Focusing on the dynamic interplay between autonomous self-rule and collective governance, it advances the thesis of Confederal Consociation, arguing that it is possible to strike a balance between the concurrent demands for territorial segmental autonomy and “ever closer union” insofar as the constituent parts are bound together in a sensibly arranged “Union” that is closer to a Gesellschaft rather than to a Gemeinschaft-type of transnational political organi sation. By comparing the basic properties of the Union with other discernible models of governance, the proposed typology claims to represent a promising analogy for reconceptualising the democratic “rules of the game”. In this context, the crucial question to be addressed is not only “Who governs?”, but also “Who is Governed?” in a par excellence “union of diversities” characterised by the concurrent demands for further constitutional engineering, national state-building processes and subnational identity-strengthening. Overall, the aim is to assess the limits and possibilities of a uniquely observed process of self-transformation from a politically loose system of democracies to a unity constituted by an “inclusive”, self-conscious and politically active transnational demos, capable of moving the European polity beyond elite domination.