Democracy, Social Resources and Political Power in the European Union

In this book Kauppi develops a structural constructivist theory of the European Union and critically analyzes, through French and Finnish empirical cases, the political practices that maintain the Union's "democratic deficit". Kauppi conceptualizes the European Union as both an arena for political contention and a nascent political order. In this evolving, multi-levelled European political field, individuals and groups construct material and symbolic structures of political power, grounded in a variety of social resources such as nationality, culture, and gender.