The Eurozone crisis has brought the imperative of democratic autonomy within the EU to the forefront, a concern at the core of demoicratic theory. The article seeks to move the scholarship on demoicratic theory a step further by exploring what we call the social construction of demoicratic reality. While the EU’s legal-institutional infrastructure may imperfectly approximate a demoicratic structure, we need ask to what extent the ‘bare bones’ demoicratic character of a polity can actually be grounded in a full-flesh social construct that is or could be acted out in the democratic experience and the self-awareness of its peoples. Ultimately, such an enquiry should help us understand whether a polity like the EU is actually and potentially a stable or unstable political form. We develop a consistent theory of popular sovereignty drawing on John Searle and HLA Hart to conceive the constitutionalised people (dêmos) as a social fact and the sovereignty of the people as a status ascribed to the people. We use this construction of demoicratic reality as a conceptual framework to understand the possibility of popular sovereignty being exercised concurrently by several rather than just one dêmos.
ArchibugiD (2008) The Global Commonwealth of Citizens Toward Cosmopolitan Democracy, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
4.
Beetz JP (2015) Stuck on the Rubicon? The resonance of the idea of demoicracy in media debates on the EU's legitimacy. European Journal of Public Policy 22(1): 37–55.
5.
BellamyR (2013) An ever closer union among the peoples of Europe: Republican intergovernmentalism and demoicratic representation within the EU’ 35. Journal of European Integration35(5): 499–516.
6.
BessonS (2006) Deliberative demoi-cracy in the European Union: Towards the deterritorialization of democracy. In: BessonSMartíJL (eds) Deliberative Democracy and Its Discontents, Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 181–214.
7.
BilligM (1995) Banal Nationalism, London: Sage.
8.
BohmanJ (2007) Democracy Across Borders: From Dêmos to Dêmoi, Cambridge, London: MIT Press.
9.
CareyS (2002) Undivided loyalties: Is national identity an obstacle to European integration?European Union Politics3(4): 387–413.
10.
CastiglioneD (2009) Political identity in a community of strangers. In: CheckelJTKatzensteinP (eds) European Identity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
11.
CheckelJTKatzensteinP (2009) European Identity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
12.
ChenevalF (2011) The Government of the Peoples: On The Idea and Principles of Multilateral Democracy, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
13.
Cheneval F and Ferrín M (2016) Switzerland: a future model for the EU? Similarities and differences. Report 4.2. of FP7 project “bEUcitizen: barriers to European citizenship” (unpublished ms).
14.
ChenevalFLavenexSSchimmelfennigF (2015) Demoi-cracy in the European Union: Principles, institutions, policies. Journal of European Public Policy22(1): 1–18.
15.
Cheneval F and Schimmelfennig F (2013) The case for demoi cracy in the European Union. Journal of Common Market Studies 51(2): 334–350.
16.
CostelloC (2012) Dublin-case NS/ME: Finally, an end to blind trust across the EU?A&MR2: 83–90.
17.
CramL (2009) Identity and European integration: Diversity as a source of integration. Nations and Nationalism15(1): 109–128.
18.
CramL (2012) Does the EU need a navel? Implicit and explicit identification with the European Union*. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies50(1): 71–86.
19.
DahlRA (1999) Can international organizations be democratic? A skeptic view. In: ShapiroICasianoH-C (eds) Democracy’s Edges, London: Cambridge University Press, pp. 19–36.
20.
DeutschK (1966 [1953]) Nationalism and Social Communication, Cambridge: MIT Press.
21.
DuchesneS (2013) Citizens' reactions to European integration compared: Overlooking Europe, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
22.
DworkinR (2004) Hart's postscript and the character of political philosophy. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies24(1): 1–37.
23.
FullerL (1957) Positivism and fidelity to law – A reply to Professor Hart. Harvard Law Review71(4): 630–672.
24.
GauchetM (2007) La Démocratie d’une Crise à L’autre, Nantes: Cécile Defaut.
25.
HabermasJ (2011) Zur Verfassung Europas Ein Essay, Berlin: Suhrkamp.
26.
HartHLA (1957) Positivism and the separation of law and morals. Harvard Law Review71: 593.
27.
HartHLA (1994) The Concept of Law: With a Postscript Edited by Penelope A. Bulloch and Joseph Raz, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
28.
Hart HLA and Sacks AM (1994) The legal process. Saint-Paul MN: West Academic Publishing.
29.
HeldD (1995) Democracy and the Global Order: From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
30.
HerrmannRKRisseTBrewerMB (2004) Transnational Identities: Becoming European in the EU, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
31.
HoogheLMarksG (2008) A Postfunctionalist Theory of European Integration: From Permissive Consensus to Constraining Dissensus. British Journal of Political Science39(1): 1–23.
32.
HurrelmannA (2015) Demoi-cratic citizenship in Europe: An impossible ideal?Journal of European Public Policy22(1): 19–36.
33.
JonesE (2015) Forgotten financial union: How you can have a Euro crisis without a Euro. In: MatthijsMBlythM (eds) The Future of the Euro, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 44–69.
34.
KelemenD (2007) Built to last? The durability of federalism. In: MeunierS (ed.) The Past and Future of European Integration, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
35.
LacroixJNicolaidisK (2010) European Stories, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
36.
ListCKönig-ArchibugiM (2010) Can there be a global demos? An agency-based approach. Philosophy & Public Affairs38(1): 76–110.
37.
McNamara K (2015) The Politics of Everyday Europe: Constructing Authority in the European Union. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
38.
MillerD (2000) Citizenship and National Identity, Cambridge: Polity Press.
39.
NicolaidisKWatsonM (2015) A Demoi-cratic approach to EMU governance in the post-crisis era. In: ChalmersDJachtenfuchsMJoergesC (eds) The End of the EUrocrat’s Dream, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
40.
NicolaidisK (2004a) We the peoples of Europe. Foreign Affairs83(6): 97–110.
41.
NicolaidisK (2007) Trusting the Poles? Constructing Europe through mutual recognition. Journal of European Public Policy14(5): 682–698.
42.
NicolaidisK (2012) The idea of European Demoicracy. In: DicksonJEleftheriadisP (eds) Philosophical Foundations of European Union Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
43.
NicolaidisK (2013) European demoicracy and its crisis. Journal of Common Market Studies51(2): 351–369.
44.
NicolaidisK (2014) A demoicratic conversation. STAIR Journal1(1): 8–21.
45.
NicolaidisK (2015a) Demoicratic theory and Europe’s institutional architecture in times of crisis. In: PiattoniS (ed.) The European Union: Democratic Principles and Institutional Architectures in Times of Crisis, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
46.
NicolaidisK (2015b) Epilogue: The challenge of European demoi-cratization. Journal of European Public Policy, Special Issue on Demoicratisation22(1): 145–153.
47.
Rawls J (2001) Justice as Fairness. A Restatement. Cambridge: The Belknap Press.
48.
RisseTA (2001) European identity? Europeanization and the evolution of nation-state identities. In: CowlesMGCaporasoJRisseT (eds) Transforming Europe: Europeanization and Domestic Change, Ithaca: Cornell Univesity Press, pp. 198–216.
49.
RisseTA (2010) Community of Europeans: Transnational Identities and Public Spheres, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
50.
RosenA (2013) The normative fallacy regarding Law’s Authority. In: WaluchowWSciaraffaS (eds) Philosophical Foundations of the Nature of Lay, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
51.
SearleJR (1995) The Construction of Social Reality, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
52.
StrumiaF (2015) Walking the blurry line in EU immigration: European citizenship and its demoicratic bridge between the member states’ power to exclude and the third country nationals’ right to belong. Jean Monnet Working Papers15.
53.
ViehoffJNicolaidisK (2015) Social justice in the European Union: The Puzzles of solidarity, reciprocity and Choice. In: KochenovDde BurcaGWilliamsA (eds) Europe’s Justice Deficit, Oxford: Hart Publishing, pp. 277–293.
54.
WeberM (1968) Economy and society: An outline of interpretive sociology. In: RothGWittichC (eds) Max Weber, Economy and Society, Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press, pp. 61–62.
55.
WeilerJ (1999) The Constitution of Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
56.
WienerA (1998) European Citizen Practice: Building Institutions of a Non-state, Boulder: Westview Press.
