Europolis : constitutional patriotism beyond the nation state

Abstract

My aim in this work is to present a vision of the European public sphere as a multiplicity of ongoing and overlapping civic dialogues conducted across cultural and national boundaries with the aim of a mutual change of perspective - in other words, intercultural and inter-societal learning. I argue that deep differences in cultural, ethical and ideological outlooks are a precious asset, rather than a threat to the emergence of a new Europe. In chapter 2 I shall outline the main arguments (and the normative implications) of contemporary democratic theories of European integration with respect to the role they do or do not assign to the European public sphere. I shall discuss the false dichotomy of global markets and national democracy with which economic liberalism and social democratic theories leave us. I will also briefly sketch some alternative theories of a denationalized European polity, which point to the possibility of, at the very least, a thin version of a European public sphere. Chapter 3 is the core of the project. Here, I propose my own dialogical or ‘interdiscursive’ version of the theory of deliberative democracy. Instead of simply aiming to contain pluralism, my conception of the public sphere actively values the everyday exploration of difference between strangers with heterogeneous cultural/ethical and national backgrounds. In order to spell out the idea of the exploration of difference and continuous learning, I draw on theories of translation derived from the philosophy of language. I argue that everyday mutual translation or ‘multicultural literacy’ offers the key to understanding the new Europe as an ongoing constitutional dialogue. In chapter 4 I show that this idea, which I call a ‘situated’ constitutional patriotism, is supported by empirical evidence about people’s sense of belonging, evidence which provides some reason to be hopeful about the emergence of solidarity, trust and learning across cultural/ethical boundaries and beyond national fragmentation.