In a world that still venerates democracy's principles but regularly despairs of its practice, the nascent political order of the European Union (EU) is a crucial test case. In a dynamic environment, where the basic terms of collaboration remain uncertain but paralysis would soon lead to breakdown, existence itself is an achievement. In particular the EU is managing to reconcile two tasks, each of which is extremely demanding even without the constraints imposed by pursuit of the other. When sovereignty resides in a public that comprises practical publics and solidarity is capacitating, rule-making is open—the creation of frameworks within which actors are encouraged to experiment with local solutions, on condition they pool what they learn with others—and redistribution follows rule-making. The Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) formalizes and makes manifest a form of policy-making that the EU has applied to encourage an integrated approach to economic development regionally and to social inclusion—as a response to grinding poverty—locally.