The European Union polity: a union of regulative, normative and cognitive pillars

Abstract:

This article regards the EU as a social construction which can be understood as an institutional field characterised by three pillars. The three pillars are not the usual ones associated with the constitutional framework: the community pillar, the common foreign and security policy, and justice and home affairs. The pillars in question are the regulative, normative and cognitive structures that together characterise an institution. The objective of this article is to analyse the three pillars and their interaction. This approach enables us to identify the logic of different processes at work in the Union and the existence of different foundations of legitimacy.