Deliberation Constrained

Deliberation has figured centrally in the EU integration process, and in the workings of the consensus-oriented EU decision-making system. Can deliberation bear the burden of political legitimation or does deliberation itself require institutional support? In this chapter, we outline some of the cultural-institutional factors that variously foster and constrain deliberation in Europe. Further specification is provided through outlining the two main positions on the role and nature of deliberative democracy in the European Union context, namely the transnational and the institutional variant. An important question today concerns the prospects for deliberation after the Euro-crisis, a major institutional and constitutional crisis for the EU. The Euro-crisis (and the other associated challenges) is transforming the EU into a segmented political order which reduces the democratic merits of deliberation. Deliberation within segmented contexts is biased towards professionalized expertise and the trained incapacity of epistemic communities.