Constituent Power in the European Union

Markus Patberg's book is one of the best books on European integration I have read in recent years. It is intellectually engaging, provocative, masterfully combines political theory, discourse analysis, and European politics, and proves the importance of an aspect that most scholars have overlooked -- that reflection on constituent power will be needed to solve the problem of European democratic legitimacy. * Michal Matlak, Contemporary Political Theory *
In the context of a significant period of crisis and transformations, Patberg's rich and illuminating book touches upon a crucial aspect of European constitutionalism, rarely explored from a political theory perspective. If change is necessary, how should it take place to be legitimate? Which actors are entitled to promote it? These questions ought to be taken into account by lawyers and the need to have a conversation across disciplines is nowadays more pressing than ever. * Massimo Fichera, Common Market Law Review *
Patberg's brilliant book shows how the concept of constituent power is as relevant today as at the birth of the modern age. Taking it out of the national setting, he demonstrates how this seemingly abstract idea has real-world purchase in the age of transnational integration and disintegration, all the while pointing us in a progressive direction. The result is a fascinating new political theory of the European Union * Jonathan White, Professor of Politics, LSE *
In combining thorough philosophical analysis with a close understanding of European politics, Constituent Power in the European Union succeeds where many others fail. Markus Patberg offers a deeply grounded, philosophical reading of the European Union as relying on a mixed constituent power that helps to make sense of many of its characteristics that often seem inexplicable. At the same time, the book offers a precise and compelling critique of the democratic shortcomings of the EU and issues in concrete recommendations for reform. * Ben Crum, Professor of Political Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam *
Constituent Power in the European Union breathes new life into the debates about the constitutionalization of the EU and offers a bold reform agenda to turn the EU's democratic deficit around. Drawing on a Habermasian inspired rational reconstruction of the institutional development of the EU, Patberg lays out how citizens acting as a constituent power are properly entitled to decide on the structure and reach of the EU. With the powerful metaphor of "citizens all the way down," Patberg constructs a persuasive defense of the idea of a pouvoir constituant mixte that pushes past empty normative ideals and offers concrete institutional and organizational proposals for citizens to exercise constituent power in the EU. * Simone Chambers, Professor of Political Science, University of California, Irvine *
For those of us who believe that the EU will lose its soul if it continues to be shielded from democratic contestation, it matters to ask how its citizens should shape what it does. In his masterful study, Markus Patberg offers a theoretically ground-breaking answer to this crucial question bringing together social facts and norms, stories and concepts, law and politics, to design a new model of pouvoir constituant mixte whereby European and national citizenship form the dual basis for the EU's democratic renewal. * Kalypso Nicolaïdis, Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford *
Markus Patberg develops and defends the idea of constituent power as a response to the frequent complaint that the EU lacks adequate popular authorisation and accountability. In so doing, he goes beyond the conventional debate about the EU's alleged democratic deficit to address the more fundamental question of the democratic legitimacy of how the EU is constituted. The result is an important and thought-provoking contribution to the literature. * Richard Bellamy, Professor of Political Science, UCL *