- Political Theory, International Political Theory, Global democracy, Global Constitutionalism, Democratic Theory, Constitutional Theory, and 31 moreConstituent Power, Rational Reconstruction, Civil Society and the Public Sphere, Public Sphere, Jurgen Habermas, Habermas and the Public Sphere, Critical Theory, Transnationalization of Public Spheres, Democracy, Legitimacy, Human Rights, Popular sovereignty, Democracy and legitimacy in global governance, Pouvoir Constituant, Political Philosophy, Constitutionalism, Sovereignty, Federalism, Political Legitimacy, Constitutional Politics, Deliberative Democracy, John Rawls, Jürgen Habermas, European Constitutionalism, Democracy in the European Union, Cosmopolitanism, Brexit, European Union, European Union Citizenship, Narrative, and Cosmopolitan Democracyedit
The euro crisis, rising Euroscepticism, and Brexit have once again highlighted the European Union's unresolved legitimacy deficit. Increasingly, citizens claim to have been illegitimately excluded from decisions about the future of... more
The euro crisis, rising Euroscepticism, and Brexit have once again highlighted the European Union's unresolved legitimacy deficit. Increasingly, citizens claim to have been illegitimately excluded from decisions about the future of European integration. Movements such as DiEM25 call into question the authority of the states as the 'masters of the treaties'. At the same time, political theory's debate about the EU has become ever more academic. The discipline is preoccupied with the production and refinement of abstract models of democratic constitutionalism whose connection to real politics is thin. This book seeks to develop a new approach to EU legitimacy by reorienting the debate from the question of how the supranational polity should ideally be organized to the question of who is entitled to make that decision and how. To that end, it reformulates the classical notion of constituent power for the context of European integration. This account challenges conventional theoretical assumptions regarding the EU's ultimate source of legitimacy and enables political theory to put to the test the claims of those who challenge the established mode of EU constitutional politics.
Research Interests: Political Theory, Narrative, Democratic Theory, European Constitutionalism, Jurgen Habermas, and 15 moreFederalism, Political Legitimacy, European Union, European Parliament, Democracy, Narrative Analysis, Habermas, Constitutional Politics, International Political Theory, Constituent Power, Protest Movements, Party Politics, Jürgen Habermas, Pouvoir Constituant Mixte, and Demoicracy
Der politische Raum jenseits des Staates ist in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten zum Schauplatz folgenreicher Prozesse der Verfassungsbildung geworden. Dabei kommt es zu Problemen der Usurpation, die überhaupt erst erkannt und einer Lösung... more
Der politische Raum jenseits des Staates ist in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten zum Schauplatz folgenreicher Prozesse der Verfassungsbildung geworden. Dabei kommt es zu Problemen der Usurpation, die überhaupt erst erkannt und einer Lösung zugeführt werden können, wenn man die Kategorie der verfassunggebenden Gewalt für die suprastaatliche Ebene neu entwickelt. Im Zentrum dieser Studie steht die Frage, nach welchen Prinzipien ein legitimer Modus der Autorisierung konstitutioneller Normsetzung organisiert sein sollte.
Research Interests: Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Democratic Theory, Political Science, European Constitutionalism, and 11 moreJurgen Habermas, Democracy, Constitutional Theory, Habermas, Constitutionalism, Constitutional Politics, International Political Theory, Constituent Power, Global Constitutionalism, Jürgen Habermas, and Rational Reconstruction
In his recent analysis of digital platforms as a medium for (democratic) political communication, Jürgen Habermas has proclaimed a constitutional imperative to maintain a functioning public sphere -- leaving open, however, what this would... more
In his recent analysis of digital platforms as a medium for (democratic) political communication, Jürgen Habermas has proclaimed a constitutional imperative to maintain a functioning public sphere -- leaving open, however, what this would require. While a growing literature develops ideas for social media reforms, these models put the cart before the horse. To restructure social media in a targeted manner, one first needs to determine the platforms' desired contribution to democracy -- which is far from obvious. Social media have a plurality of democratic affordances and can thus be assigned different, sometimes competing roles. To determine social media's place in democracy, we need to do what Habermas has failed to do: locate social media in the centreperiphery model of political communication in media society. In doing so, I argue that social media reforms should primarily aim to empower agents in the periphery.
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In this article, I ask to what extent the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) has advanced democracy in the European Union (EU). I critically engage with the claim that the CoFoE's success should not be measured by whether it... more
In this article, I ask to what extent the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) has advanced democracy in the European Union (EU). I critically engage with the claim that the CoFoE's success should not be measured by whether it enabled constituent power, or ultimately results in treaty reforms, but by the fact that, by introducing citizens' assemblies to EU politics, it has laid the foundation for participatory democracy in the EU. Drawing on established theories of participatory democracy, I argue that this interpretation misses the point. To put forward an alternative view, I revisit James Bohman's concept of a democratic minimum. The best democratic defence of permanent EU citizens' assemblies is that they could provide citizens with the capacity to initiate deliberation about common concerns-and thus function as a nucleus for constituent power in the EU. Nevertheless, the idea should be viewed with caution, as permanent citizens' assemblies could just as well become a democratic fig leaf allowing EU institutions to reject calls for fundamental reforms. Much therefore depends on their institutional design.
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Politische Akteure dringend zunehmend darauf, dass Staaten aus internationalen Institutionen und Abkommen austreten. Dieser Beitrag untersucht Exit-Politik hinsichtlich des Problems institutioneller Regression und formuliert eine Kritik... more
Politische Akteure dringend zunehmend darauf, dass Staaten aus internationalen Institutionen und Abkommen austreten. Dieser Beitrag untersucht Exit-Politik hinsichtlich des Problems institutioneller Regression und formuliert eine Kritik am souveränen Voluntarismus, der vorherrschenden Vorstellung legitimer Exit-Politik, die die Gefahr des Verlusts normativer Errungenschaften nicht berücksichtigt.
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In this introduction, we set out what we consider the main current democratic challenges in the EU and, by extension, of differentiated (dis)integration (DI). The EU needs to strike a difficult balance between being an association of... more
In this introduction, we set out what we consider the main current democratic challenges in the EU and, by extension, of differentiated (dis)integration (DI). The EU needs to strike a difficult balance between being an association of states and a supranational polity. As a result, it finds itself in a continuous search for an institutional design that may count as fully democratic. Finally, the EU increasingly suffers from populist and even autocratic challenges. While DI can contribute to some of these problems, it also carries the promise of constructive solutions. We highlight some of the special issue's key insights with regard to the complex relation between democracy and DI.
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Since Brexit, there has been increasing interest in democratic theory in the question of the conditions under which reversals of European integration can be considered legitimate. So far, however, the literature is very much focused on... more
Since Brexit, there has been increasing interest in democratic theory in the question of the conditions under which reversals of European integration can be considered legitimate. So far, however, the literature is very much focused on the specific case of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. In this article, I seek to prepare the ground for a systematic theory that clarifies, at a general level, the scope and limits as well as the actors and procedures of democratically legitimate disintegration. To that end, I map the potential democratic costs and benefits of EU disintegration. In doing so, I distinguish five types of disintegration: retreat, revocation, exit, expulsion, and dissolution. All of these measures can produce conflicts between the democratic claims of citizens and peoples. Many of these cannot be resolved but must be dealt with politically. Overall, disintegration bears more potential costs for citizens than for peoples.
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While the emerging debate about the disintegration of the European Union focuses on descriptive and explanatory questions, this article approaches the phenomenon from the perspective of democratic theory. Building on a concept of... more
While the emerging debate about the disintegration of the European Union focuses on descriptive and explanatory questions, this article approaches the phenomenon from the perspective of democratic theory. Building on a concept of disintegration as a form of constitutional politics that includes various possibilities of dismantling supranational polities, I argue that disintegration gives rise to a democratic puzzle. While it must be possible, for democratic reasons, to partially or entirely reverse European integration, any such step threatens the European Union's democratic achievements. Disintegration seems to be caught between legitimate change and regression. To address this democratic puzzle, I examine to what extent European integration has produced democracy related "ratchet effects" that limit the scope for legitimate reversal. This analysis leads to three principles of legitimate disintegration that can be applied to any supranational polity and have important implications for the post-Brexit relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Research Interests: European Studies, European integration, European Constitutionalism, Jurgen Habermas, Legitimacy, and 12 moreEuropean Union, Democracy, Constitutional Theory, Habermas, Constitutional Politics, Constituent Power, Differentiated Integration, Jürgen Habermas, Democracy in the European Union, Brexit, European disintegration, and Destituent Power
The debate about constituent power in the EU has so far neglected the problem of political agency. The focus has been on the question of who holds founding authority rather than how it could be exercised. In this article, I examine if... more
The debate about constituent power in the EU has so far neglected the
problem of political agency. The focus has been on the question of who
holds founding authority rather than how it could be exercised. In this
article, I examine if and to what extent transnational partisanship could
function as a vehicle for constituent power in the EU. According to a new
proposal, cross-border deliberation between between members of likeminded
parties that are in power at the national level should prepare the
ground for intergovernmental treaty making at the EU level. I argue that
this model of ‘networked’ constituent power is problematic because it
fails separate pouvoir constituant and
pouvoirs constitués. By means of a rational reconstruction of the
Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, I outline an alternative model of
extraordinary partisanship. Extraordinary partisan associations ‘co-opt’
regular parliamentary elections to acquire a mandate for a project of
constitutional change. Such an organization could enable citizens from
various member states to promote an opening up of the EU polity for the
exercise of constituent power.
problem of political agency. The focus has been on the question of who
holds founding authority rather than how it could be exercised. In this
article, I examine if and to what extent transnational partisanship could
function as a vehicle for constituent power in the EU. According to a new
proposal, cross-border deliberation between between members of likeminded
parties that are in power at the national level should prepare the
ground for intergovernmental treaty making at the EU level. I argue that
this model of ‘networked’ constituent power is problematic because it
fails separate pouvoir constituant and
pouvoirs constitués. By means of a rational reconstruction of the
Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, I outline an alternative model of
extraordinary partisanship. Extraordinary partisan associations ‘co-opt’
regular parliamentary elections to acquire a mandate for a project of
constitutional change. Such an organization could enable citizens from
various member states to promote an opening up of the EU polity for the
exercise of constituent power.
Research Interests:
Political theory develops its normative positions on EU legitimacy with a view to what seems possible and acceptable under given political, social and cultural conditions. Thus, the Brexit vote should give it a pause. In this article, I... more
Political theory develops its normative positions on EU legitimacy with a view to what seems possible and acceptable under given political, social and cultural conditions. Thus, the Brexit vote should give it a pause. In this article, I discuss if and to what extent we can hold on to the claim that the EU is based on a pouvoir constituant mixte. In particular, I examine three problems that are raised by the UK's decision to leave the EU. First, I address the analytical challenge of whether 'split' popular sovereignty is refuted as a rational reconstruction of the EU. Second, I turn to the normative-theoretical challenge of whether it is a category mistake to refer to (dual) constituent power in the context of the EU. Third, I deal with the political challenge of whether pouvoir constituant mixte is prone to confuse citizens and to scare them off with excessive 'EUphoria'.
Research Interests: European Studies, European integration, Political Theory, Democratic Theory, European Constitutionalism, and 18 moreEuropean Politics, European Union, Democracy, Lisbon Treaty, Constitutional Theory, European Union Politics, Constitutionalism, International Political Theory, Constituent Power, Constitution, Democracy in the European Union, Pouvoir Constituant, Worried Membership: The Prospects for Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, Brexit, European disintegration, Pouvoir Constituant Mixte, Article 50, and Disintegration
Since the euro crisis, protest movements present the EU as a neoliberal hegemony that undermines democracy and prevents progressive reforms. They call for acts of resistance and partial disintegration to force a renegotiation of the... more
Since the euro crisis, protest movements present the EU as a neoliberal hegemony that undermines democracy and prevents progressive reforms. They call for acts of resistance and partial disintegration to force a renegotiation of the treaties. In this article, I ask whether these 'disruptive' political strategies can be defended as a democratic practice of constitutional politics. To that end, I turn to the notion of destituent power, according to which opposition to or withdrawal from public authority can function as a legitimate trigger for constitutional change. I systematise the emerging debate on destituent power and discuss the plausibility of competing approaches. I argue that destituent power is best understood as grounded in popular sovereignty. It denotes the right to dismantle constitutional orders without the intention to construct new ones. While this idea supports some of the acts of contestation proposed by EU protest movements, it faces a lure towards the jurisgenerative dimension of constituent power. Ultimately, the potential of a purely negativistic logic of constitutional politics is limited.
Research Interests: Social Movements, Political Theory, Democratic Theory, Protest, European Union, and 12 moreDemocracy, Contestation and political processes, Constitutional Politics, Civil disobedience, Constituent Power, Protest Movements, Resistance, Democracy in the European Union, Contestation, European disintegration, Destituent Power, and DiEM25
There is a growing sense that if the EU is to avoid disintegration, it needs a constitutional renewal. However, a reform negotiated between executives will hardly revitalize the European project. In light of this, commentators have... more
There is a growing sense that if the EU is to avoid disintegration, it needs a constitutional renewal. However, a reform negotiated between executives will hardly revitalize the European project. In light of this, commentators have suggested that the EU needs a democratic refounding on popular initiative. But that is easier said than done. Shaping the EU has been an elite enterprise for decades and it is hard to imagine how things could be otherwise. In this article, I map four public narratives of constituent power in the EU to sketch out potential alternatives. Political actors increasingly call into question the conventional role of the states as the 'masters of the treaties' and construct alternative stories as to who should be in charge of EU constitutional politics, how the respective subject came to find itself in that position, and how it should invoke its founding authority in the future. These public narratives represent a promising starting point for a normative theory that outlines a viable and justifiable path for transforming the EU in a bottom-up mode.
Research Interests: European Studies, Political Philosophy, European Law, Political Theory, Narrative, and 15 moreDemocratic Theory, European Constitutionalism, Civil Society and the Public Sphere, European Union, European Constitutional Law, Democracy, Narrative Analysis, Constitutionalism, International Political Theory, Constituent Power, Protest Movements, Global Constitutionalism, Democracy in the European Union, Pouvoir Constituant, and Pouvoir Constituant Mixte
This article presents a rational reconstruction of the practice of constitutional politics in supranational polities. In doing so, it seeks to refocus the ongoing debate about constituent power in the EU on the question of who, under what... more
This article presents a rational reconstruction of the practice of constitutional politics in supranational polities. In doing so, it seeks to refocus the ongoing debate about constituent power in the EU on the question of who, under what conditions, is entitled to decide on the EU constitutional order. The analysis leads to a number of principles of democratic legitimacy , which include the political autonomy of the members of the state demoi as well as the political autonomy of the members of a cross-border demos. In explicating these parallel entitlements to political autonomy, I provide a systematic justification for the notion of a pouvoir constituant mixte, according to which the citizens should take control of EU constitutional politics in two roles – as European citizens and as Member State citizens.
Research Interests: European Studies, Political Philosophy, European integration, European Law, Political Theory, and 26 moreDemocratic Theory, European Constitutionalism, Jurgen Habermas, Legitimacy, Political Legitimacy, European Politics, European Union, European Union Law, Democracy, Lisbon Treaty, Constitutional Theory, Habermas, European Union Politics, Constitutionalism, Constitutional Politics, Constituent Power, Global Constitutionalism, Jürgen Habermas, Democratic Legitimacy, Popular sovereignty, Pouvoir Constituant, Rational Reconstruction, EU Legitimacy, Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union, Pouvoir Constituant Mixte, and Demoicracy
In this article, I refine the discourse-theoretical account of constituent power in order to address a problem that haunts the notion of pouvoir constituant since its earliest invocations: the theoretical conflict between openness and... more
In this article, I refine the discourse-theoretical account of constituent power in order to address a problem that haunts the notion of pouvoir constituant since its earliest invocations: the theoretical conflict between openness and containment. On the one hand, the category of constituent power is tied to expectations of radical procedural and substantive openness and seems to lose its distinctive character once we set forth normative requirements for constitution-making. On the other hand, the pouvoir constituant is understood as the constitu-tion’s source of democratic legitimacy, which means that not every procedure and not every result of constitution-making can be deemed acceptable. A possible solution to this dilemma is to derive the normative standards for the democratically legitimate exercise of constituent power from the practice of founding itself. To that end, I conduct a rational reconstruction that starts out from the presuppositions of freedom and equality that underlie the real-world practice of constitution-making. In the analysis, I revise the thought experiment that leads Jürgen Habermas to the system of rights and explicate, from the participant perspective, the procedural and substantive conditions under which the exercise of constituent power presents itself as discursively justifiable.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Democratic Theory, Frankfurt School (Philosophy), and 12 moreJurgen Habermas, Democracy, Constitutional Theory, Frankfurt School, Habermas, Constitutionalism, Constitutional Politics, Constituent Power, Jürgen Habermas, Pouvoir Constituant, Rational Reconstruction, and Critical Theory/Frankfurt School
Research Interests: European Studies, Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Democratic Theory, Sovereignty, and 34 morePolitical Science, European Constitutionalism, Jurgen Habermas, Federalism, Cosmopolitanism, European Union Citizenship, European Politics, European Union, European Constitutional Law, Democracy, Constitutional Theory, Habermas, European Union Politics, Theories of Sovereignty, Constitutionalism, Constitutional Politics, Radical Democracy, International Political Theory, Constituent Power, Cosmopolitan Democracy, Euro-Zone Crisis, Global Constitutionalism, Global democracy, Jürgen Habermas, Democracy in the European Union, Popular sovereignty, Pouvoir Constituant, Eurozone crisis, Sovereignty, Citizenship and Constituent Power, La souveraineté du pouvoir constituant, Brexit, Pouvoir Constituant Mixte, Demoicracy, and European Cosmopolitism
In this article, I elaborate a conceptual innovation that underlies, if only in nascent form, Jürgen Habermas’s notion of pouvoir constituant mixte and could significantly advance research on the democratic legitimacy of EU constitutional... more
In this article, I elaborate a conceptual innovation that underlies, if only in nascent form, Jürgen Habermas’s notion of pouvoir constituant mixte and could significantly advance research on the democratic legitimacy of EU constitutional politics: the levelling up of constituent power. According to this idea, state-level pouvoirs constituants may issue an authorization for constitutional decision-making at the supra-state level and thereby bring about a new constituent power whose composition can take a variety of forms. This conceptual framework paves the way for a systematic analysis of the EU’s pouvoir constituant and its relation to the demoi of the member states. At the same time, it renders it an open normative question who should be in charge of EU constitutional politics.
Research Interests: Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Democratic Theory, Sovereignty, Political Science, and 29 moreEuropean Constitutionalism, Jurgen Habermas, Federalism, Cosmopolitanism, European Union Citizenship, European Politics, European Union, European Constitutional Law, Democracy, Constitutional Theory, Habermas, European Union Politics, Theories of Sovereignty, Constitutionalism, Constitutional Politics, Radical Democracy, International Political Theory, Constituent Power, Cosmopolitan Democracy, Global Constitutionalism, Global democracy, Jürgen Habermas, Democracy in the European Union, Popular sovereignty, Pouvoir Constituant, Sovereignty, Citizenship and Constituent Power, La souveraineté du pouvoir constituant, Pouvoir Constituant Mixte, and Demoicracy
The normative school of global constitutionalism lacks a convincing model of constitutional politics. As far as the democratic legitimacy of constitution-making at the supra-state level is addressed at all, scholars usually resort to... more
The normative school of global constitutionalism lacks a convincing model of constitutional politics. As far as the democratic legitimacy of constitution-making at the supra-state level is addressed at all, scholars usually resort to democratic intergovernmentalism. According to this normative model, processes in which constitutional norms in the global realm are made or amended are democratically legitimate if they are organized as treaty-making among democratic executives, followed by parliamentary ratification. In this article, I argue that this model should be rejected because it puts the democratic legal domestication of public authority at risk. Specifically, democratic intergovernmentalism is characterized by five shortcomings: (a) it does not distinguish between norms of contractual and constitutional quality, (b) it undermines the separation of powers, (c) it breaches the division and hierarchi-zation of constituent and constituted power, (d) it disregards the deliberative dimension of democratic control and (e) it does neither provide the citizens nor their representatives with a capacity to begin. Ultimately, I suggest that a superior approach should build on the notion of constituent power.
Research Interests:
In this review article, I suggest that the books under review should be conceived of as trailblazers of an emerging debate in international political theory. They all innovatively apply the concept of constituent power to the... more
In this review article, I suggest that the books under review should be conceived of as trailblazers of an emerging debate in international political theory. They all innovatively apply the concept of constituent power to the international realm and thereby contribute to establishing a new principle for the democratic legitimacy of international institutions. I argue that we should aim to develop a systematic theory of constituent power beyond the state because such a tool could considerably enhance the analytical categories of our research on democratic legitimacy beyond the state. Furthermore, I propose research questions for this new field of study, concerning conceptual, methodological and institutional aspects, and in turn apply these to the different conceptions of an international pouvoir constituant presented in the volumes under review in order to discuss their strengths and weaknesses.
Research Interests:
In "The Crisis of the European Union" Jürgen Habermas claims that the constituent power in the EU is shared between the community of EU citizens and the political communities of the member states. By his own account, Habermas arrives at... more
In "The Crisis of the European Union" Jürgen Habermas claims that the constituent power in the EU is shared between the community of EU citizens and the political communities of the member states. By his own account, Habermas arrives at this concept of a dual constituent subject through a rational reconstruction of the genesis of the European constitution. This explanation, however, is not particularly illuminating since it is controversial what the term ‘rational reconstruction’ stands for. This article critically discusses the current state of research on rational reconstruction, develops a new reading of Habermas’ method and invokes this account for an explanation and evaluation of the notion of a European pouvoir constituant mixte.
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"In his guest contribution to the PVS 4/2011 Michael Zürn analyzes the development of empirical legitimacy in the western democracies, in authoritarian states and in the context of the proliferation of political authority and law beyond... more
"In his guest contribution to the PVS 4/2011 Michael Zürn analyzes the development of empirical legitimacy in the western democracies, in authoritarian states and in the context of the proliferation of political authority and law beyond the state. He claims that democracy is losing ground as justificatory principle of legitimate authority. His argument is based on a conception of legitimacy which can be elucidated by reference to a “judgment model” for the empirical study of legitimacy. This model is differentiated here from a model which conceptualizes the empirical study of legitimacy as measurement. It is argued that Zürn’s empirical analysis does not meet the requirements of his own, complex understanding of empirical legitimacy and that therefore his main thesis – that the significance of democracy as a source of political legitimacy is declining – needs to be questioned."
Research Interests:
"In "The Crisis of the European Union" Jürgen Habermas claims that the constituent power in the EU is shared between the community of EU citizens and the political communities of the member states. By his own account, Habermas arrives at... more
"In "The Crisis of the European Union" Jürgen Habermas claims that the constituent power in the EU is shared between the community of EU citizens and the political communities of the member states. By his own account, Habermas arrives at this concept of a dual constituent subject through a rational reconstruction of the genesis of the European constitution. This explanation, however, is not particularly illuminating since it is controversial what the term rational reconstruction stands for. This article critically discusses the current state of research on rational reconstruction, develops a new reading of Habermas’s method and invokes this account for an explanation and evaluation of the notion of a European pouvoir constituant mixte."
Research Interests:
Die europäische Integration ist seit Beginn der 1990er Jahre schrittweise zu einem zentralen Gegenstand von Habermas' demokratietheoretischen Arbeiten geworden. Zugleich ist sie der Bereich, in dem er sich mit besonderer Verve als... more
Die europäische Integration ist seit Beginn der 1990er Jahre schrittweise zu einem zentralen Gegenstand von Habermas' demokratietheoretischen Arbeiten geworden. Zugleich ist sie der Bereich, in dem er sich mit besonderer Verve als öffentlicher Intellektueller engagiert. Seine wissenschaftlichen Schriften zur Europäischen Union (EU) lassen sich sowohl inhaltlich als auch methodisch als Beiträge zu einer Diskurstheorie supranationaler Demokratie verstehen. Dieser systematische Gehalt erschließt sich, wenn man die EU-Texte vor dem Hintergrund vorangegangener Arbeiten zum demokratischen Rechtsstaat liest. Es liegt in der Natur der Sache, dass sich Habermas' Beiträge zu Fragen europäischer Integration stets an ein grenz-überschreitendes Publikum richten und auch ihre Rezeption in transnationalen Diskursen erfolgt. Dementsprechend beschränkt sich auch die folgende Betrachtung ihrer Wirkungsgeschichte nicht auf den deutschen Kontext, sondern folgt inhaltlichen Debattenverläufen und systematischen Entwicklungslinien. Die wichtigsten Stationen auf diesem Weg sind die Suche nach europäischer Öffentlichkeit und Bürgerschaft (I.), die Rolle der EU im Rahmen einer Konstitutionalisierung des Völkerrechts (II.) und die Idee eines pouvoir constituant mixte (III.). Dabei ergibt sich das Bild eines Projekts praxisorientierter Theoriebildung, das auf ein distinktes Modell supranationaler Demokratie hinausläuft - welches sich jüngst mit Heraus-forderungen partieller Desintegration und differenzierter Integration konfrontiert sieht (IV.).
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"Several rulings of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), first of all in the case Hirst v United Kingdom, have evoked a debate about the democratic legitimacy of international human rights review. This paper contributes to this... more
"Several rulings of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), first of all in the case Hirst v United Kingdom, have evoked a debate about the democratic legitimacy of international human rights review. This paper contributes to this discussion by analyzing the legitimacy of international human rights courts from the perspective of Kantian democratic theory. Basically, I argue that the current debate is marked by a shortcoming which it inherited from the arguments about domestic judicial review. The main contributions ignore the dimension of extraordinary politics, i.e. they fail to assess the democratic legitimacy of human rights courts on the level of institution-building. The legitimacy debate revolves around issues such as the ECtHR’s relation to national parliaments and the citizens, its competences, its decision procedures and the substance of its rulings, while the following question is not systematically addressed: Who should be entitled to establish and reform international human rights courts and to define their competences and decision procedures in the first place?
In this paper, I tackle this question on the basis of a Kantian approach to democracy. First, I present some conceptual considerations on legitimacy and democratic legitimacy. Second, I introduce a Kantian conception of democracy that distinguishes between popular sovereignty in normal and extraordinary politics. Moreover, I outline two corresponding perspectives on the democratic legitimacy of judicial review. Third, I briefly summarize the discussions about the legitimacy of national and international judicial review in order to show that they exclusively focus on democratic legitimacy in normal politics. Fourth, I object to a standard argument (the ‘dictatorship argument’) that is frequently brought forward to support the claim that the extraordinary dimension of politics is irrelevant for the legitimacy of judicial review. Fifth, I consider the legitimacy of international human rights courts from the extraordinary politics perspective. I criticize the intergovernmental account of institution-building and argue that the right to establish international human rights courts belongs to the constituent power of the member states’ peoples. Sixth, I consider institutional forms for the exercise of this entitlement. The conclusion summarizes the findings and hints at their practical implications."
In this paper, I tackle this question on the basis of a Kantian approach to democracy. First, I present some conceptual considerations on legitimacy and democratic legitimacy. Second, I introduce a Kantian conception of democracy that distinguishes between popular sovereignty in normal and extraordinary politics. Moreover, I outline two corresponding perspectives on the democratic legitimacy of judicial review. Third, I briefly summarize the discussions about the legitimacy of national and international judicial review in order to show that they exclusively focus on democratic legitimacy in normal politics. Fourth, I object to a standard argument (the ‘dictatorship argument’) that is frequently brought forward to support the claim that the extraordinary dimension of politics is irrelevant for the legitimacy of judicial review. Fifth, I consider the legitimacy of international human rights courts from the extraordinary politics perspective. I criticize the intergovernmental account of institution-building and argue that the right to establish international human rights courts belongs to the constituent power of the member states’ peoples. Sixth, I consider institutional forms for the exercise of this entitlement. The conclusion summarizes the findings and hints at their practical implications."
Research Interests:
"The number of contributions to the global constitutionalism debate has reached a vast scale in recent years. There are discussions about the constitution of the European Union, the constitutions of international organizations (e.g. the... more
"The number of contributions to the global constitutionalism debate has reached a vast scale in recent years. There are discussions about the constitution of the European Union, the constitutions of international organizations (e.g. the WTO), the constitution of the international community (which some authors identify with the UN Charter), or the constitutionalization of international law in general. In particular beyond European law, i.e. within the debate of international law, questions of constitutional and democratic theory are often neglected. Especially the topics of constituent power and the legitimacy of the purported constitutions and processes of constitutionalization are disregarded. Against this background, we address the legitimacy of the constitutionalization of international law. More precisely, we reconsider where the constituent power can be located beyond the state and which functions transnational public spheres could and ought to fulfill with regard to its representation."
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Review of Jürgen Habermas’s book Ein neuer Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit und die deliberative Politik [A New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Deliberative Politics].
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Accessible at:
https://www.openstarts.units.it/handle/10077/29492
https://www.openstarts.units.it/handle/10077/29492
Research Interests: Political Philosophy, Ethics, Legitimacy and Authority, Globalization, Political Theory, and 15 morePlato, Animal Studies, Political Science, Edmund Husserl, Giorgio Agamben, Michel Foucault, Utilitarianism, Jean Paul Sartre, Vulnerability, Legal Philosophy, Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt, Alter-globalization, Constituent Power, and Global Law
Exceptional times call for exceptional measures-this formula is all too familiar in the domestic setting. Governments have often played loose with their state's constitution in the name of warding off an urgent threat. But after decades... more
Exceptional times call for exceptional measures-this formula is all too familiar in the domestic setting. Governments have often played loose with their state's constitution in the name of warding off an urgent threat. But after decades of increasing interconnectedness and emerging transnational governance, today one sees new forms of emergency politics that are cross-border in range. From the European Union (EU) to the World Health Organization (WHO), from supranational institutions to state governments acting in concert, the logic of emergency is embraced in international contexts, with Covid-19 the latest occasion. This Forum offers an entry-point into this emerging phenomenon. Taking as its point of departure two recent books, it examines the origins, forms, effects and normative stakes of emergency politics beyond the state. Amongst the matters discussed are the concept of emergency politics, the historical context of its contemporary forms, the patterns of decision-making associated with it, the implications for the legitimacy of transnational institutions, and the constitutional and political ways in which it might be contained. Transnational emergency politics seems likely to remain a central feature of the coming years, and our aim is to further its study in IR.
Research Interests: Constitutional Law, International Relations, Legitimacy and Authority, International Relations Theory, Globalization, and 14 moreInternational Law, Governance, Diplomacy, European Union, Democracy, Emergency Management, Constitutional Theory, Carl Schmitt, European Union Politics, Financial Crisis, State of exception, Technocracy, Constitutional Law Theory, and COVID-19 PANDEMIC
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Few debates in political theory are challenged as much by the constant change of their empirical subject as those about democracy in the European Union (EU). With A Republican Europe of States, Richard Bellamy responds to the EU's... more
Few debates in political theory are challenged as much by the constant change of their empirical subject as those about democracy in the European Union (EU). With A Republican Europe of States, Richard Bellamy responds to the EU's post-Lisbon era, which has been characterized by the euro crisis, conflicts over migration, the rise of Euroscepticism, and Brexit. Keeping an eye on these contextual conditions and the related legal and political transformations, he has developed a general theory of international democracy aimed at securing non-domination between peoples and between citizens and their representatives at the international level, and elaborated its implications for the EU. The result is a distinctive version of demoi-cracy, whose firm centering on the nation-state as the natural locus of democracy is likely to be controversially discussed. In this article, I raise some critical considerations regarding the design of demoi-cratic institutions, the adequate understanding of EU citizenship, and the normative credentials of differentiated (dis-)integration.
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This is a reply to a review symposium on my book "Usurpation und Autorisierung: Konstituierende Gewalt im globalen Zeitalter".
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Many people believe that the UK's decision to leave the EU spells trouble for both country and continent, yet by and large think that the exit vote and process, painful though they may be, adhere to the rules and spirit of democratic... more
Many people believe that the UK's decision to leave the EU spells trouble for both country and continent, yet by and large think that the exit vote and process, painful though they may be, adhere to the rules and spirit of democratic self-government. Peter Niesen and Markus Patberg argue that in one important respect this is not the case, since fully democratic credentials require reversibility in decision-making and are incompatible with an irreversible loss of political rights.
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Brexit has given rise to a range of critical issues. For example, was the composition of the electorate for the referendum adequate? What follows from the fact that some parts of the UK voted to remain? What will happen to resident EU... more
Brexit has given rise to a range of critical issues. For example, was the composition of the electorate for the referendum adequate? What follows from the fact that some parts of the UK voted to remain? What will happen to resident EU citizens? Will the EU try to set a warning example in the withdrawal negotiations? It hence prompts the need for a normative theory of disintegration.
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Research Interests: Political Philosophy, Globalization, Political Theory, Agonistic Pluralism, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, and 10 moreGlobalization and Governance, Bonnie Honig, William Connolly, Chantal Mouffe, Constituent Power, Global democracy, Agonism, Pouvoir Constituant, James Tully, and Agonistic Democracy
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"This is a response to John S. Dryzek’s “Global Democratization: Soup, Society, or System?” in the Summer 2011 issue of Ethics & International Affairs."