Citizenship Democracy And Justice In The New Europe

The contributors to this study address the question of how political theory is relevant to the construction of new Europe and the tie-in issues of citizenship, social justice and political legitimacy. By using techniques of contemporary political theory, the book argues that the emergence of new Europe poses fundamental questions of value and principle and challenges more established political theories in the process.

How different cultural groups can be made to live together in justice and fairness in one common political entity has in the past been discussed almost exclusively from the perspective of nation-states. In an increasingly globalising or de-nationalising world, this no longer seems adequate.The European Union, as a union of states and with an-built expansive tendency, is a very different, unique kind of organization, offering a challenging new context for the discussion of how social justice can be ensured in multicultural societies. As debates in the post-Maastricht era show, the European process of regional integration needs to be accompanied by profound reflexions on issues such as multiculturalism, democratic legitimacy, and the idea of citizenship. In three sections, on Globalisation and Multiculturalism, Deliberation and Democracy, and Citizenship and the European Union, this book offers such reflexions, formulated by young European legal and political philosophers, from England, Estonia, France, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland.The papers were discussed at a conference held in November 2001 in Tossa de Mar/Spain. This was the first of three "PhD EuroConferences in Legal Philosophy" sponsored by the Commission of the European Union. The papers of the other two conferences (Nov. 2002, Gerona/Spain; Nov. 2003, Genoa/Italy) are forthcoming in this collection.

This unique study presents the results of a cross-national analysis of citizenship and participation among citizens in twelve European democracies. Research on the future and quality of contemporary democracy is usually restricted to focus either on political participation, on particular aspects of citizenship, or on social activities, exclusively. This new book offers the first empirical investigation of the relationships both between social and political involvement, and between ‘small-scale’ and ‘large-scale’ democracies. Citizenship and Involvement in European Democracies offers representative samples of the populations in a selection of European countries between 2000-2002, including: Denmark, Germany (East and West), Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The leading contributors provide new theoretical insights and offer a broad conceptualization of citizenship, stimulating the ongoing discussions about the problems and challenges of democratic political systems. This book has a companion volume entitled Social Capital and Associations in European Democracies edited by William A. Maloney and Sigrid Roßteutscher (Routledge, 2006). Both volumes will be of great interest to students and researchers of European politics, comparative politics and sociology.

This book provides a critique of the way in which European citizenship is imagined and practiced. Setting their analysis in its full historical context, the authors challenge preconceived ideas about European citizenship on the basis of a detailed reconstruction of political, social and economic practice. In particular, they show the extent to which the elimination of formal internal borders within Europe has come hand in glove with the emergence of new socio-economic boundaries and the hardening of external borders. The book concludes with a number of concrete proposals to forge a genuinely post-national form of membership.

Democratic states guarantee free movement within their territory to all citizens, as a core right of citizenship. Similarly, the European Union guarantees EU citizens and members of their families the right to live and the right to work anywhere within EU territory. Such rights reflect the project of equality and undifferentiated individual rights for all who have the status of citizen, but they are not uncontested. Despite citizenship's promise of equality, barriers, incentives, and disincentives to free movement make some citizens more equal than others. This book challenges the normal way of thinking about freedom of movement by identifying the tensions between the formal ideals that governments, laws, and constitutions expound and actual practices, which fall short. "Individual states and the European Union have either created or permitted the creation of direct and indirect barriers to mobility that undermine the promise of freedom of movement. The volume identifies these barriers, explains why they have arisen, discusses why they are difficult to remove, and explores their consequences." -- Joseph Carens, University of Toronto.

The contributors to this study address the question of how political theory is relevant to the construction of new Europe and the tie-in issues of citizenship, social justice and political legitimacy. By using techniques of contemporary political theory, the book argues that the emergence of new Europe poses fundamental questions of value and principle and challenges more established political theories in the process.

Ernst Hirsch Ballin discusses the significance of citizens’ rights against the backdrop of ongoing migration and urbanization in the beginning of the 21st century. The traditional view that each state has the sovereign power to give or withhold citizenship, puts the full enjoyment of human rights at risk whenever exclusion is based on differences in nationality. Citizens’ rights are the essential connecting link between human rights and life in a democratic society. Citizens have an individual right, as a citizen, to take part in the democratic process and in the structures of solidarity of the state where they are effectively at home. By recognizing everyone’s right to the citizenship of the state in which they can make these rights a reality, citizens’ rights can bridge the gap between the universality of human rights and the changing political and social settings of people’s lives. Limits on dual citizenship are counterproductive, European citizenship paves the way for transnational citizenship. "Hirsch Ballin's book is very important for academics and practitioners in the field of citizenship. It embraces the complexity of citizenship with all its academic, practical and emotional meanings. Hopefully, Hirsch Ballin's work can serve as a compass for new directions in immigration and naturalisation debates." Katja Swider in: Journal of European Integration, Vol 38. nr. 4, 2016

This collection identifies and discuss the connections between human dignity and democracy from theoretical, substantive, and comparative perspectives. Drawing on detailed analyses of national and transnational law, it provides timely insights into the uses of human dignity to promote and challenge ideas of identity and solidarity.