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In this article the author considers the ruin as the focus of contradictory positions of rejection and even loathing in the process of ‘the transfer of the empire’ (translatio imperii) in historical time. The author considers questions of continuity and rupture, with relation to the idea of ruins and grand monuments on the one hand, and living empires and changing circumstances on the other. The author comments on the relations among material remains, mental images, linguistic artefacts and other types of objects in the progressive move away from antiquity and towards the empires of Christianity. The author shows that the city remains a fluid, but steady, presence amidst historical change. The paper argues for new constructions built on the infrastructure that is the ruins of the pagan past, and especially Rome. Ruins are an irresistible attraction but also instigating desperate attempts to sweep aside an ‘overflow of memory’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Without radically upsetting the institutional and political balance of the Union, the Commission's White Paper on Governance, published 25 July 2001, proposes a new basis for the EU's institutional legitimacy. However, this conceptual re-foundation gives rise to new and fundamental questions. To speak of governance within democracy is indeed unthinkable unless 'governance' is redefined as a form of government where the legitimacy of public action (as well as its efficiency) is made possible by a 'proceduralisation' of law. The failure to promote legitimacy with concepts borrowed from the vocabulary of the nation-state is nevertheless puzzling: should the 'participatory democracy' be considered a substitute for representative democracy? Even if this is not the case, it is uncertain whether 'participatory democracy' sufficiently embodies the democratic ideal, at least at the European Union level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]