European Union Institutional Architectures: Structural Tensions, Dynamic Forces and the Advantages of Hapticity

This chapter explores a number of innovative concepts that can guide the construction of a new type of of transnational democracy for the highly interconnected context of the European Union. It takes inspiration from the notion of 'hapticity' which, in architectuiral theory, indicates the effort to situate buildings in their context and to make them enter in a dialogical relationship with it. It is ony by adopting a 'haptic' view that we can start to understand how the institutional architecture of the EU should aim for a type of democracy that allows the citizens of the various member states enter in dialogical relationships with one another. The notions of non-domination, constitutional dialogues and demoicracy are suggestive of the characteristics that a transnational democracy should have.