INTRODUCTION

This chapter endeavours to present normative benchmarks for assessing in a coherent and systematic manner the EU participatory turn. As mentioned in the previous chapter, this requires taking a stand on three highly contested issues. As to the conception of civil society and the nature of its democratic contribution, the theoretical framework developed by Cohen and Arato in ‘Civil Society and Political Theory’ will support the view that civil society is a pluralist sphere of participation between state and market wherein deliberative ethics realises its full potential. Democratisation proceeds whenever civil society manages to assert influence over the state and market subsystems without falling prey to their colonising tendencies. This emancipatory process has so far taken place within the context of national welfare states. This begs the question: how will it play out in the EU which is not a state (3.2)?

A proper answer entails agreement to be reached as to the nature of the EU-polity. It will be argued that the EU is a multilevel political system with a social policy in the making. Multilevel social Europe turned to civil society's involvement in European governance in the hope that it would democratise its representative system of government. The crucial issue raised by the participatory turn is whether multilevel social Europe will be able to continue the emancipatory process engaged by national welfare states. In others words, will social Europe contribute to civil society's empowerment or to its collapse under the colonising forces of power and money (3.3)?

This brings up three sets of questions an affirmative answer to which appears necessary if civil society is to democratise social Europe. Firstly, is European economic law colonising or sufficiently reflexive to limit the impact of negative integration on civil society (3.4)? Secondly, is social Europe democratic in the sense that it opens European governance to the democratic influence of civil society (3.5)? Lastly, is social Europe effective, that is, able to protect civil society from the market imperative of European economic integration (3.6)? A cursory glance will be given to these questions and the specific case studies chosen to test them will be introduced. The remaining chapters will be dedicated to their in-depth analysis.