MISMATCH BETWEEN THE EU INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT AND DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY

Through a closer examination of Habermas's constitutional patriotism model, the article disentangles the relationship between EU institutional developments, the possible unfolding of a European public sphere - conceived by Habermas as the only source of legitimacy for binding decisions, and as a necessary prerequisite for the development of a civic sense of belonging to the EU by European citizens - and the affective ('horizontal') relations amongst Europeans. Several dynamics are brought to light. First comes through clearly that at the core of Habermas's conception of supranational citizenship lies the unfolding of horizontal relations amongst Europeans - necessary to the functioning of the European public sphere which is central to Habermas's model. However, if it is via the development of a vertical attachment - itself fostered by European policies aimed at the creation of a European identity - that affective relations amongst citizens can also develop, the way horizontal forms of integration amongst individuals can reciprocally feed into the identification of citizens with the EU project as a political entity is less clear. The article argues, in particular, that the EU institutional context is not conducive to the development of a deliberative form of democracy, because institutions are structurally predetermined to filter public discussions in such a way that not all participants to the public debate feel represented equally by those political decisions that emerge. In such a context, and even assuming that a genuine transnational public sphere would progressively develop, citizens are unlikely to develop a sense of belonging to a genuine community of citizens.