How Social? The European Deficit of Justice

Abstract

The history of European integration is the history of its promises, explicit or taken for granted. What factors do we have left, then, that can mobilize the will of the citizens? We only have the social promise if we want to provide European institutions with the legitimacy and acceptance without which Europe cannot confront the challenges it will face in the future. It is not that democratic challenges are not important, but the social construction of Europe is essential to assure popular acceptance at this time. Only a Europe in which the state and market—politics and the economy—were not decoupled would allow the activation of elements of social protection at the European level. The problem is determining the extent to which and the conditions under which the EU can configure itself as a post-national alternative to the policies of the welfare state.