Citizenship in an Eventual Euro-Democracy

✍ Scribed by Philippe C. Schmitter

• Book ID: 102286512
• Publisher: Swiss Political Science Association
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: German
• Weight: 259 KB
• Volume: 4
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1420-3529
• DOI: 10.1002/j.1662-6370.1998.tb00255.x

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The European Union is not (yet) a functioning democracy, but it has begun to develop some of the institutions of democracy. Among these is the practice of citizenship. This essay explores this uniquely democ‐ratic status and how it would have to be modified in an eventual Euro‐democracy. The EU's larger scale and limited scope, its more heteroge‐neous socioeconomic composition, its multiplicity of (sub‐)national identities and, above all, its restricted “stateness” make it difficult to develop an effective and significant Euro‐citizenship. I offer six “mod‐est reform proposals” that might help to overcome this difficulty. I conclude that we must not expect too much from Euro‐citizenship. It is definitely not the panacea that will resolve the EU's rising legitimacy problems. What is required if the process of European integration is to shift from a logic of functional interdependencies to one of politicized exchanges is an even broader package of reforms not just in the scope of citizenship, but also in its forms of representation and its rules of decision‐making.