Sobre la concepción constructivista de la ciudadanía europea (y sus límites).

Abstract

This paper will present the constructivist conception of the European citizenship that has developed Theodora Kostakopoulou. This conception tries 1) to show that the notion of cultural and political identity is artificial and not “natural”, 2) to avoid the trap of offering models of citizenship based on national states, models that are inapplicable to a supranational institution like the EU, and 3) to take into account the democratic principles of inclusion and participation in the making of the European citizenship. I will present this model in three steps. First, after presenting the features of constructivism as a theory of knowledge, I will try to determine in which sense we can speak of a constructivist conception of citizenship. Secondly I will emphasize the differences, according Kostakopoulou, between this model of European citizenship and others models formulated over these years. Finally, I will discuss two limits to this approach. First, the author is unaware of the "essentially" contested nature of the catalogue of European citizens’ rights. Secondly, she gives the European Court of Justice an active role in the construction of the European political unity, without considering in depth the question of the Court’s deficit of democratic legitimacy.