Europe's Super-Rich: Towards Oligarchic Constitutional Order

Abstract

This article addresses an important but understudied puzzle in European Union Studies: the super-rich's influence on domestic and transnational discourses, policies and institutions for wealth defence, security and legitimacy. It examines the super-rich's impact on democratic governance and human rights claims of marginalized groups, and how states, civil society and non-oligarchic entities contest oligarchic rule. The article proposes a research agenda to determine if Europe can be seen as an oligarchic constitutional order, characterized by governance practices and authority structures deeply intertwined with the super-rich's interests in transnational and domestic politics. The framework in this research agenda underscores how institutional arrangements, legitimating principles, regulatory practices and procedural systems increasingly favour the super-rich, reflecting a dominant mode of transnational governance rooted in extreme socio-economic stratification. The research agenda aims to elucidate the tension between wealth and democratic governance, particularly how policies and normative discourses often align with the super-rich's interests despite resistance from marginalized groups.