Making Sense of the EU: Competing Goals, Conflicting Perspectives

Issue Date October 2003
Volume 14
Issue 4
Page Numbers 42-56
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Although in many ways the European Union has been remarkably successful, it is a profoundly ambiguous creation Competing interpretations view it as an essentially intergovernmental organization that remains a creature of its member state; as the germ of an emerging federal state; as some kind of middle ground between these two; or as a novel kind of political entity that is variously characterized as a “postmodern,” “neomedieval,” “post-state,” or “nonstate” polity. It has been able to advance despite this ambiguity, but with EU enlargement and the drafting of a Constitutional Treaty by a European Convention chaired by Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, it will face new challenges. A key question is whether the EU—or any international organization—can succeed in democratizing itself without becoming a state.

About the Author

Marc F. Plattner, founding coeditor of the Journal of Democracy, is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the National Endowment for Democracy. He also serves as cochair of the International Advisory Board of the Institute for Political Studies at the Portuguese Catholic University.

View all work by Marc F. Plattner