Nationalism and bounded integration: what it would take to construct a European demos

Abstract:

This article uncovers some crucial key assumptions of polity-formation underpinning the debate about the European Union's democratic legitimacy. It uses theories of nationalism to understand why a demos is unlikely to develop easily at the European level. Based on a two-by-two categorization of the logic and scope of identity-formation, it concludes that the most promising approach to European demos-formation conceives of identities as both constructed and 'sticky'. Labeling this theoretical position 'bounded integration', the author suggests that it provides a more realistic foundation for developing democracy-enhancing reform proposals than does post-nationalist theorizing, especially due to the former's explicit attention to identity-conferring mechanisms such as education, language and media.