Civic competence and the challenge to EU polity-building
- October 2002
This article argues for the institutionalization of European `civic competence': the institutional capacity of European citizens qua social equals to be actively engaged in the governance of the EU. It claims that a novel approach is need to bridge the institutional and sociopsychological aspects of the EU's democratic pathology through the construction of a multi-level civic space to enhance the governing capacity of European citizens, whilst creating a particular normative order for an input-oriented legitimacy to emerge. It is also argued that recent, managerial-type reforms failed to transform a shadowy political space into a purposeful res pulbica: a community of free and equal citizens which is able to navigate the normative orientaitons of European civic society through a principled public discourse
Civic competence EU polity-building Sovereignty Union citizenship