Nationalism and bounded integration: What it would take to construct a European demos

This article uncovers some crucial key assumptions of polity-formation unde rpinning the debate about the European Union's democratic legitimacy. It us es theories of nationalism to understand why a demos is unlikely to develop easily at the European level. Based on a two-by-two categorization of the logic and scope of identity-formation, I conclude that the: most promising approach to European demos-formation conceives of identities as both constr ucted and 'sticky'. Labeling this theoretical position 'bounded integration ', I suggest that it provides a more realistic foundation for developing de mocracy-enhancing reform proposals than does post-nationalist theorizing, e specially due to the former's explicit attention to identity-conferring mec hanisms such as education, language and media.