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Denationalization and the Very Idea of Democratic Constitutionalism: The Case of the European Community[Note 1. This paper was presented at the conference “Law and ...]
Author(s) -
Gerstenberg Oliver
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
ratio juris
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.344
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1467-9337
pISSN - 0952-1917
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9337.00184
Subject(s) - legitimation , constitutionalism , sovereignty , democracy , politics , state (computer science) , political science , european union , political economy , law and economics , law , democratic deficit , nation state , sociology , economics , international trade , algorithm , computer science
Within the current debates about Euro‐constitutionalism, the conventional options are either to defend a vision of the European Union (EU) which separates global economic law from national sovereignty, and thus relies on the legitimizing powers of free markets, or to regard the legitimation problem (at least under current conditions) as beyond solution: This view argues that any further progress towards an ever closer Union would inevitably increase the legitimation deficit and that therefore the capacity for political action of the nation state should be protected or restored. This paper seeks to break the stranglehold of the, as is argued, false dichotomy (global markets vs. national democracy), and it argues that an extension of democracy beyond the nation state is possible.