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Reconstructive Science and the European Constitution: Habermas, Citizenship, and the Tension between Facts and Norms

Reconstructing Social Theory, History and Practice

ISBN: 978-1-78635-470-9, eISBN: 978-1-78635-469-3

Publication date: 22 November 2016

Abstract

Purpose

After some discussion of Habermas’ model of reconstruction and the ways in which he and others have applied it to the European Union (EU), I venture some remarks about the development of EU law and European democracy.

Methodology/approach

I trace the way in which a meta-theory of social science can be extended to illuminate questions of political and constitutional legitimacy.

Findings

It is found that Habermas’s model points to the double character of EU citizenship, in which one is a citizen both of the Union and of one if its member states, and the corresponding creative tension between these two levels of governance.

Originality/value

A contribution to the so-far rather under-developed theorisation of the political philosophy of a united Europe.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

I am extremely grateful to Christian Joerges for a number of helpful suggestions on a related paper, forthcoming in Fabien Girard and Simone Glanert (eds.), Law’s Hermeneutics (Abingdon: Routledge). Thanks also to Stefan Müller-Doohm for drawing my attention to Vogelmann’s article and to Esteban Castro, the late Chris Rumford, Simon Susen and Chris Thornhill for their encouragement.

Citation

Outhwaite, W. (2016), "Reconstructive Science and the European Constitution: Habermas, Citizenship, and the Tension between Facts and Norms", Reconstructing Social Theory, History and Practice (Current Perspectives in Social Theory, Vol. 35), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 211-223. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0278-120420160000035008

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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