The three worlds of European civil society—What role for civil society for what kind of Europe?

The article argues that it is difficult to agree on the political role and the democratic credentials of civil society in the EU not just because the concept of civil society is ambiguous but also because civil society is linked to different images of the nature of the European polity. An analytical model is developed that categorises three distinct conceptions of the Union and spells out the different roles civil society may take in each of them to render the EU more democratic. The empirical analysis exposes the implicit conceptions which inspired the Commission to involve civil society in EU governance and investigates how these conceptions changed with the formalisation of EU–society relations. The article concludes that no coherent normative theoretical concept gained ground and, consequently, civil society is assigned contradictory roles which do not add up but depreciate the democratic state of the Union.