Jürgen Habermas is one of a number of left-leaning social theorists who have talked enthusiastically about the prospects of the European Union becoming a socialmodel ‘alternative’ to global neoliberalism. This article supports his goal, but rejects his idea that a form of civic solidarity allegedly developed at national level should be expanded to the European sphere. A new European polity may play a progressive role, but only when social movements push it to implement social regulation against the resistance of international capital and its administrative elites.
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