The Cosmopolitan Future of the European Union?

• Autores: Heikki Patomäki
• Localización: Il politico: rivista italiana di scienze politiche, ISSN 0032-325X, Nº. 231, 2012, págs. 129-146
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • What kind of EU will take shape after the euro crisis of the early 2010s and its possible (and likely) partial fragmentation? In this paper, I develop three scenarios, based on economic theories and theories of legitimation that seems to provide the most plausible explanation for the past developments. According to the first scenario, the neoliberal European project will continue and deepen. In the second scenario, the EU will develop into a social democratic federation of states and a world power. In the third scenario the EU will pursue transformations of global governance and promote democratic and social goals, understanding itself as part of a much wider dynamic whole.The first scenario is about continuity to the prevailing developments, but its prognosis is not good. A social democratic federal European Union would prevent a simple repeat of the current EU euro crisis, and would also solve a few other contradictions in the European political economy. The EU is, however, only a relatively small part of the world economy as a whole. Moreover, generalized principles of justification point in the direction of world citizenship and a global political community. A cosmopolitan European Union would act foremost as a builder of worldwide institutions, its immediate goal being the establishment of global Keynesianism.