This book asks how the type of cooperation that the EU is based on can be explained; what are the integrative forces in the EU and how can integration at a supra-national level come about? The key thinkers represented in this volume stress that in order to understand integration beyond the nation state, we need new explanatory categories associated with deliberation because a supranational entity as the EU posesses far weaker and less well-developed means of coercion - bargaining resources - than do states. The most appropriate term to denote this is the notion of 'deliberative supranationalism'.

1. Post-national integration Erik Oddvar Eriksen and John Erik Fossum 2. Beyond the Nation-State? On Some Consequences of Economic Globalization Jurgen Habermas 3. Deliberative Supranationalism in the EU Erik Oddvar Eriksen 4. The Uses of Democracy: Reflections on the European Democratic Deficit Richard Bellamy and Dario Castiglione 5. Subsidiarity and Democratic Deliberation Andreas Follesdal 6. Constitution-making in the European Union John Erik Fossum 7. The Anonymous Hand of Public Reason. Interparliamentary Discourse and the Quest for Legitimacy Lars Chr. Blichner 8. Challenging the Bureaucratic Challenge Christian Joerges and Michelle Everson 9. Demanding Public Deliberation. The Council of Ministers: Some Lessons from the Anglo-American History Roberto Gargarella 10. Can the European Union Become a Sphere of Publics? Philip Schlesinger and Deidre Kevin 11. Indigenous Rights and the Limitations of the Nation State Else Grete Broderstad 12. Erik Oddvar Eriksen and John Erik Fossum. Conclusion. Bibliography.