The new usage of the words ‘governance’ and ‘civil society’ reflects a new trend in the theory and practice of liberal democracy. It is a trend which is reflected also in the use of the expression ‘corporate governance’ in the theory and practice of capitalism. It is a development which is presented as if it were benign and progressive. It may also be seen as sinister and reactionary.

In a White Paper on European Governance the European Commission has fallen in with such an approach. It is not likely to be useful in resolving the problem of the legitimacy of the institutions of the European Union. The Union's constitutional problem requires a fundamental reconceiving of the nature of the Union as a society and of the Union's relationship to the societies and constitutional systems of the member states.

European Union is a new kind of society with a new kind of constitution which is contained within but transcends the societies and the constitutions of its member states.