Research Paper on philosophical foundations

This research paper prepared by the University of Groningen will somewhat depart from a traditional approach to the history of differentiation in order to investigate its historical antecedents within the history of European political thought with the aim of identifying as well as problematize its normative and philosophical bases The paper will be divided into two parts In the first one it will turn to both likely and unlikely candidates for theorizing and justifying European supranational democracy and governance and implicitly or explicitly models of differentiated integration Hannah Arendt and Jrgen Habermas Reconstructing Arendts early arguments about the normative and political origins of vertical and horizontal European democracy as well as her agentcentered notions of democratic participation and willformation opens the conceptual space for a variety of models of differentiated European integration In recent years Habermas who is like Arendt also an ardent supporter of European post and supranational democracy has theoretically experimented with and provides justification for differentiated dual track systems of European integration In the second part conceptual and normative problems with these models and their potential contradictions and limitations will be systematically explored and discussed Models of differentiated integration while potentially increasing democratic legitimacy and making citizens support among core members more robust risk to increase divisions within Europe two classes of states and may put European integration as a whole at risk On this basis in a third step the paper will develop exploratory models of differentiated European integration reflecting on questions of individual and national membership inclusionexclusion the public realm conditions of political participationdeliberative democracy and democratic legitimacy