The book assesses the prospects for uniting diverse publics into a composite polity with its own sense of 'demos-hood'. It also places Europe's normative evolution in the wider context of an ordered global plurality made up of highly interrelated actors. In examining whether the European Union has reached a point which might be telling of an end state, the book offers a depiction of the whole as an 'organized synarchy' of entwined sovereignties, arguing that the envisaged transition from a synarchy of co-sovereigns to a self-identifying citizenry requires the constitution of a 'Republic of Europeans'. A polity which, corresponding to the liberal republican vision of 'many peoples, one demos', regulates contemporary forms of pluralism, which the authors approach as instances of a 'civic polyculturalism'.

Offering new understandings on Europe's normative evolution, this book will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students in politics, Government, European studies, international relations, international organization and political theory. Doctoral students, postdoctoral and advanced researchers, as well as policy makers in government and international organizations, will also find much to interest them in this book.

Contents: Preface; 1. The Global Plurality; 2. Retheorizing Europe; 3. 'One Great Republic'?; 4. Reflective Projections; 5. Postscript: Directions; References; Index