Weber, Habermas and Transformations of the European State
Constitutional, Social, and Supranational Democracy

This book confronts the difficulty of theorizing progressive politics during radical state transformation.

John P. McCormick (Author)

9780521811408, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 April 2007

318 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.5 cm, 0.64 kg

"...one cannot fail to appreciate the force and urgency of [John McCormick's] appeal for a supranational governance that is desperately needed in the European Union today. This book brings into clear focus one vision and will stimulate further discussion of what form that governance should take, as well making a major contribution to the on-going scholarly engagement with Weber and Habermans."
-Anthony J. Carroll, Heythrop College, University of London, The Heythrop Journal

This book critically engages Jürgen Habermas's comprehensive vision of constitutional democracy in the European Union. John P. McCormick draws on the writings of Max Weber (and Habermas's own critique of them) to confront the difficulty of theorizing progressive politics during moments of radical state transformation. Both theorists employ normative and empirical categories, drawn from earlier historical epochs, to analyze contemporary structural transformations: Weber evaluated the emergence of the Sozialstaat with antedated categories derived from nineteenth-century and premodern historical examples; while Habermas understands the EU almost exclusively in terms of the liberal (Rechtsstaat) and welfare state (Sozialstaat) paradigms. Largely forsaking the focus on structural transformation that characterized his early work, Habermas conceptualizes the EU as a territorially expanded nation-state. McCormick demonstrates the deficiencies of such an approach and outlines a more appropriate normative-empirical model, the supranational Sektoralstaat, for evaluating prospects for constitutional and social democracy in the EU.

1. Introduction: theorizing modern transformations of law and democracy
2. The historical logic(s) of Habermas's critique of Weber's 'sociology of law'
3. The puzzle of law, democracy and historical change in Weber's 'sociology of law'
4. Habermas's deliberatively legal Sozialstaat
5. Habermas on the European Union: normative aspirations
6. The structural transformation to the supranational Sektoralstaat and prospects for democracy in the EU
7. Conclusion: Habermas's philosophy of history and the future of Europe.

Subject Areas: Law [L], Political science & theory [JPA], Politics & government [JP]