Is democratic transnational sovereignty possible? An analysis of sovereignty in the context of EU integration

This paper examines how the Eurozone financial crisis of 2011 impacted the possibility of the future of European integration. It examines the reactions of Europe’s political elites to the crisis through the lens of Jürgen Habermas’s philosophical work on the subject of transnational democratic sovereignty. More often that not decisions made in Brussels have been made on the basis of the national interest of member states and conducted in a highly undemocratic fashion. This has provoked a backlash in many member states by people unhappy with the constant lack of consultation on crucial matters, leading to fears that the world’s first transnational democracy may in fact be giving way to the first ‘post-democratic’ form of political union.