European governance and the re-branding of democracy

Abstract:

The European Commission's White Paper on European Governance, in using the words 'governance' and 'civil society', reflects a new trend in the theory and practice of liberal democracy. It is a trend which is reflected also in the use of the expression 'corporate governance' in the theory and practice of capitalism. Such an approach is not likely to be useful in resolving the problem of the legitimacy of the institutions of the European Union. The Union's constitutional problem requires a fundamental re-conceiving of the nature of the Union as a society and of the Union's relationship to the constitutional systems of the Member States.