A Segmented Political Order - Differentiated Integration and the Problem of Arbitrary Rule

Brexit has been a shock, awakening us to prospect of severe differentiation in Europe. But it was the Euro-crisis that first of all reinforced differentiated integration. Monetary Union is clearest example of differentiated integration. Neo-functional, intergovernmental and institutionalist approaches explain processes of differentiation as attempts to minimise conflict in light of increased discrepancy between exclusive Union and member state competences. This literature has not clarified the legitimacy problems involved. Several constitutional analysts have highlighted such problems with the dramatic vocabulary emergency politics and authoritarian rule. But since the EU is not a state – its constitutional nature is contested and is not in the possession of formal emergency powers - there is a need for another conceptual strategy to grasp dynamics and democratic problems of differentiated integration. This proposal suggests the concept of segmentation. Segmentation is about the effects of differentiation in the horizontal dimension of political integration. It describes the coping with increased complexity through establishing autonomous systems of governance within different policy domains. A segmented political order in Europe is a source of arbitrary power because it decouples the decision-making structure from the (democratic) access-structure.