New Forms of Governance in Europe?

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Abstract
This article takes its point of departure in an empirical analysis of the decline of the state as the major political ordering principle in Europe, with the aim of discussing norms of democratic legitimacy for polities beyond the nation-state. To this end, the genesis of plebiscitarian democratic norms is recounted, emphasizing the replacement of the natural law tradition with utilitarian justifications of individual rights. The decline of natural law meant a decline of universal or international norms, and a concomitant confining of democratic legitimation to the nation-state. In today's Europe, the empirical decline of the state entails a need for redesigning democratic institutions. The central concept here is subsidiarity, which is now the official political ordering principle of the European Union.