In international relations the European Union has emerged as a new form of polity increasingly characterized by a unique mix of state-like attributes and intergovernmental organization traits. At the same time, it seems to be increasingly characterized by multiculturalism, which in its essence...

This paper shows that the main pattern of European democratisation has unfolded along the lines of an EU organised as a multilevel system of representative parliamentary government and not as a system of deliberative governance as the transnationalists propound. But the multilevel EU has...

In the discussion on the prospects for democratic reform in the European Union, a collective European identity features prominently among the preconditions of greater democracy. The lack of a common European identity in the realm of foreign, security and defence policy has often been lamented....

It is often assumed that Turkey’s chance of accession to the EU would be enhanced were the European project to move in an inclusive, cosmopolitan direction. However, the inclusion of women’s rights and post-sexual revolution sexuality in the battery of ‘EU-niversal’ values could still...

This paper presents a defence of Kant’s idea of a voluntary league of states. Kant’s proposal that rightful, or just, international relations can be achieved within the framework of such a league is often criticized for being at odds with his overall theory. Given Kant’s view on the...

The Committee of the Regions is a relatively young institution in the European Union context. Since having been set up by the Maastricht Treaty, it has gone through an interesting development which saw an increase in its consultative role, an important expansion of its remit and also its...

In the European Employment Strategy (EES) the EU applies the so-called ‘Open Method of Coordination’ (OMC). In the academic literature it is stylized as a focal point for decentralised modes of governance. But drawing on Michel Foucault’s governmentality approach the OMC does not seem to...

The COREU/CORTESY network, through which member states exchange documents related to the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) is a crucial but little known instrument in the EU system of foreign policy making. This paper aims to shed light on how it works and what function it serves. It...

This paper examines the relationship between gender identity, feminism and democracy in the context of the European Union. In the first part of the paper, Schleicher examines the concept of gender and pose the question: under which circumstances can and should the term ‘gender’ replace the...

Constitutional pluralism divides opinion. What makes it attractive to some in a globally connected world also accounts for the scepticism of others. Its allure lies in its ambition to square two ideas – ‘constitutionalism’ and ‘pluralism’ - typically understood as incompatible....