those of an adaptive viewpoint tend to view it as premature and as potentially
eroding what was an evolving common law constitution negotiated between
the ECJ and national courts (Weiler 2003 ).
Perhaps the most signiWcant theoretical advocate of both the Charter and the
Constitution has been Ju ̈rgen Habermas. In a series of inXuential articles, he
has argued that an EU Constitution could become the focus for ‘‘a constitu-
tional patriotism’’(e.g. Habermas 1992 , 2001 ). His claim appears to be that
democratic deliberation between the peoples of Europe presupposes certain
common constitutional norms of mutual recognition. Liberal cosmopolitans,
however, will be inclined to ask why such norms should have a speciWc
European focus rather than being global in application. Habermas appears to
incline to the view that certain cultural commonalties exist, diVerentiating
continental Europeans at least from the United States on such issues as welfare
and the abolition of capital punishment. Especially in the wake of the second
Iraq war, Europe has been seen by several theorists as an alternative power bloc
to the United States, committed to a social rather than an aggressively free
market model (Habermas and Derrida 2003 ). However, many social demo-
cratic civic nationalists contend that the EU has been a force of economic
liberalization rather than of social protection (Miller 1998 ), while cosmopol-
itans point out that appeals to European values are potentially regressive and
exclusive (Young 2003 ). These debates have revealed the theoretical as well as
practical diYculties of reconciling ‘‘unity and diversity’’ as the Constitution
aspires to. Some Habermasians have claimed that a process of democratic
deliberation oVers a route forward (Erikson and Fossum 2000 , chs. 1 – 3 , 6 ,
and 12 ). However, the two Conventions employed to draw up the EU’s new
constitutional documents were elite aVairs with only the most indirect of
democratic mandates. Indeed, the rejection of the Constitution in the 2005
French and Dutch referenda suggests popular enthusiasm was largely absent.
Meanwhile, for reasons explored below, many theorists doubt that a pan-
European democratic dialogue could meaningfully take place.
4 Citizenship and Democracy
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
A prime critique of the EU since the 1970 s has been that it suVers from
a democratic deWcit. Theorists standardly focus on two dimensions of the
252 richard bellamy