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Democratic Legitimacy in the B und or ‘Federation of States’: the Cases of B elgium and the EU
Author(s) -
Rummens Stefan,
Sottiaux Stefan
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
european law journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.351
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1468-0386
pISSN - 1351-5993
DOI - 10.1111/eulj.12053
Subject(s) - legitimacy , democracy , democratic legitimacy , normative , political science , russian federation , state (computer science) , law , order (exchange) , law and economics , sociology , economics , politics , computer science , regional science , finance , algorithm
Carl Schmitt developed the concept of the ‘federation of states’ (Bund) in order to characterise intermediate constitutional systems which are integrated beyond the level of a confederation (Staatenbund) without, however, acquiring the level of integration of an actual federal state (Bundesstaat) . In this paper we analyse the constitutional specificity of the ‘federation of states’ and present three normative principles for assessing the democratic legitimacy of the decision‐making procedures within such a federation. We argue that both the European Union and Belgium can be analysed as instances of such a federation of states and show how this characterisation improves our understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of both polities and the constitutional and democratic challenges they are facing.