A research framework to shed light on the character of the EU’s social constituency, as it emerges in dynamic interaction with the process of polity formation.

Social constituency:

The structure of demands and expectations that citizens and groups place on the EU.

Recognition order:

A framework within which individuals and groups are learning to see themselves as recognised with respect to certain characteristics.

CATNESS X NETNESS

Organisation is the sum of:

Steps of identification:

a) Catness:, the nature and extent of relevant categories; such as gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, nation, age, region, religion, province, and class.

b) Netness: the nature and extent of networks within which people involve themselves. A network is made up of people with some kind of an interpersonal bond – weak or strong. Networks are often formed around categories, or the latter are embedded in specific networks.

c) Assessing catness and netness, in order to get a sense of their organisational status. This includes an assessment of the degree of inclusiveness and exclusiveness of each catnet, as well as an assessment of their organisational status, such as the resources they command, as well as how they are structured.

A further indicator of netness is the group or organisation’s mobilising potential:

• in response to an outside threat to a group’s identity or sense of self (defensive)

• to capitalise on opportunities that have arisen (offensive)

• to preparatory mobilisation, where a group ‘pools resources in anticipation of future opportunities and threats’ (Tilly 1978: 74).

The two-dimensional catnet grid:

Cat

Ascriptive

Voluntary

Nation-state

Religious

Net

d) to sort out which catnets, from the whole range of possible ones that would be the most important for us to establish the relevant claimants:

We can start from any one of the following angles:

• Identify all those groups that are directly involved in the generation, maintenance and also rectification of the basic conditions that ensure self-confidence in any given society

• Identify the type and range of rights that are available to citizens in a society with the aim of sorting out those groups that are particularly involved in ensuring the conditions that underpin self-respect

• Identify those groups most closely associated with the ‘hegemonic’ values in any given society and then look at all those dependent on the ‘hegemons’ so as to establish the conditions that underpin self-esteem

• Supplemental investigations, such as for instance to obtain information on the prison population, on the presumption that disadvantaged groups tend to be more frequently incarcerated – are there particular groups that dominate here?

e) to clarify the reasons that groups give to seek recognition:

– look for the explanations that groups give to account for why they are concerned with recognition, and try to ascertain which mode of recognition they are most concerned with;

– interview members of the groups;

– study the information they produce, the interventions they make, the claims they set forth, and how they are addressed by other groups and by public authorities.

f) to sort groups by explicit reference to the notion of denial of recognition.

– focuses explicitly on those groups that subjectively see themselves as in need of recognition, and who will also be able and prone to refer to experiences of denial of recognition or who refer to some form of denigration or insult.

g) establish how and the extent to which those actors that can be categorised under the label of recognition approach the EU.

Four possible ways in which claims and claimants may relate to the EU can be identified:

1) they focus exclusively on the EU as the addressee for claims

2) the EU is seen as supplemental, meaning that there is an equal focus on the EU and on another entity, such as an organisation’s home state

3) the EU is a subsidiary addressee, meaning that there is another addressee that matters more to the groups or the organisations

4) the relevant claim-seekers do not focus on the EU at all

3 ‘LEITBILDER’ OF THE EU

• Very weak or non-existent supranational decision-making and sanctioning ability, at least in non-market matters.

• Significant formal and informal constraints on supranational institution-building.

• A very limited scope for redistribution and foreign and security policy confined to the member states.

• A weak and highly constrained fiscal and taxing ability, based on member state contributions.

• A limited scope and range of regulatory measures beyond the operation of the Common Market.

• Problem-solving through transnational functional regimes on the basis of delegated authority.

• Legitimation ensured through democratic will-formation at the nation state level – with the requisite democratic control of regulatory functions above the state level ensured by openness and deliberation in transnational governance structures.

The EU as a trans-national entity

The EU as a state-in-the-making

• A commitment to a constitutional patriotism founded on basic rights and democratic procedures, which also ensures that citizens are considered as and consider themselves as citizens of the same order.

• The basic structural and substantive constitutional principles of Union law will be firmly entrenched.

• Coercive measures and the resources required for efficient and consistent norm enforcement and policy implementation.

• Schooling, symbolic measures and social redistributive means to socialize the people of Europe into ‘Europeans’.

• A set of clearly delineated criteria for who are Europeans and who are not, and these criteria reflect cultural aspects and the search for a common identity.

• A wide scope of regulatory and redistributive measures, and an independent and significant fiscal capacity and taxing ability (taxes paid directly to the Union).

• A European foreign and security policy, police and military force for territorial control and protection of sovereignty, and international legal recognition as a state.

The EU as an emergingcosmopolitan government

• The active development of a European constitutional structure with a firmly entrenched rights basis which includes civil, political, social and economic rights.

• A post-national organization that subjects its actions to higher-ranking principles.

• The borders of the Union are justified with regard to what is required for the Union to be a self-sustainable and well-functioning democratic entity and with regard to the support and further development of similar regional associations in the rest of the world.

• A commitment to a set of universal norms founded on fundamental rights and democratic procedures.

• A delineation of powers and responsibilities along horizontal and vertical lines.

• A very open and comprehensive, multi-level process of democratic will-formation that places great onus on participation conducive to deliberative democratic supranationalism.

• The Union is not aspiring to be a world power but a regional political order that pushes for and binds itself to cosmopolitan principles.