ABSTRACT
This chapter maps the research fields of EU politicisation, democratisation, and identity formation and proposes a definition of the concept of politicisation. Research question, cases, research design, and added value of the comparative discourse-analytical study are explained. The guiding research question, in what respect and to what extent do national EU discourses function as a means for the formation of European identity and the democratisation of the EU?, arises from a democratic theory-led approach to democratic EU identity. EU democratisation is linked to the formation of a “European identity” insofar as democracy must, from a normative point of view, consist not only of electoral and civil rights but also of democratic practice, which is based on a demos that identifies itself as such. The social construction of European identity and its intersection with the politicisation and democratisation of the EU is empirically studied via two decisive national EU discourses, the French and the German, on the Treaty on a Constitution for Europe (TCE) in 2005. The book, thus, makes a theoretical, conceptual, and empirical contribution to the study of EU politicisation, democratisation, identity formation, and the ways these three are related to one another.
