Abstract

Jurgen Habermas is regarded amongst philosophers who have analyzed the new political configurations beyond the nation-state, playing a vital role in the contemporary debate on the European constitution and democracy. Focusing primarily on his works devoted to the European integration, the intent of this paper is to analyze the implications of his re-thinking of the “constitution” and the democracy in Europe, starting from the theme of the national constellation crisis. It argues that Habermas’ attempt to rethink political identity at the European level is somewhat of an extension of his analysis in Facts and Norms which reveals tensions in relations to the constitutive political plurality of Europe. Moreover, the paper outlines in which sense Habermas’ recent appeal to the concepts of “divided sovereignty” and “divided/shared constituent power” represents a novelty since it explicitly tries to theorize the EU as a federal, non-statal community. In this regard, this paper discusses some objections to Habermas’ proposal which have surfaced in the debate.