Democracy and pluralism after European integration
Incorporating the contested character of the EU
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7737290 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bertjan Wolthuis (0000-0002-6197-6352, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Ben Crum (0000-0003-4330-295X, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, corresponding author), Álvaro Oleart (0000-0002-9696-4298, Institute for European Studies of the Université Libre de Bruxelles), Patrick Overeem (0000-0002-7264-4927, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 1136-1160 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-19 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1369-8230 • E-ISSN: 1743-8772 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13698230.2023.2216043 |
| OpenAlex | W4378905489 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 35 |
Recent years have seen multiple controversies between the EU and its member states that revolve around different conceptions of what kind of polity the EU is, and what it should be. These controversies are particularly heated when fundamental democratic values are at stake. In this article, we address the fundamental tension between the assertion of common EU values and the pluralistic character of the EU polity, both among and within member states. The driving question of this article is how we can understand controversies between the EU and its member states in light of the presence of alternative conceptions of the EU and its democratic and pluralistic character. We reconstruct two opposing conceptions of the EU–the intergovernmental and the cosmopolitan conception–and then analyse how the disagreement between these fundamental conceptions plays out in five key controversies. We argue that the disagreement over what the EU is, and what it should be, is inherent to EU politics. The EU can only become democratic if it recognizes these conflicting understandings and provides political arenas in which the disagreements between them can be articulated, confronted, and resolved
Assertion · Character (mathematics · Democracy · Epistemology · Law and economics · Pluralism (philosophy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Polity · Sociology · European Union Policy and Governance · Law · Philosophy · Political Systems and Governance · Populism, Right-Wing Movements
The Idea of a European Superstate
European Stories
A Republican Europe of States
Force and Freedom
Illiberalism Within
Imagining the Future of the Euro-Polity with the Help of New Concepts
Liberal Pluralism
Poland’s Rule of Law Breakdown
The political construction of the ‘citizen turn’ in the EU
Ever tighter union? Brexit, Grexit, and frustrated differentiation in the single market and Eurozone
Conflicts of sovereignty in contemporary Europe
A demoicratic justification of differentiated integration in a heterogeneous EU
An Ever Closer Union Among the Peoples of Europe’
A tripartite model of federalism
Bound to Fail
The European Union between solidarity and justice
The Case for Demoicracy in the European Union
Brexit
Political legitimacy and European monetary union
A Constitution for Europe? Some Hard Choices
Democracy without Politics’ in the European Commission's Response to Democratic Backsliding
Taking Constitutionalism beyond the State
Democratic Backsliding and Academic Freedom in Hungary
Playing the blame game on Brussels
Countering Democratic Backsliding by EU Member States
Democratic Partisanship
The Transformation of the Hungarian Party System. From Democratic Chaos to Electoral Autocracy
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |