Citizenship was the mark of political belonging in Europe in the twentieth century, while estate, religion, party, class, and nation lost political significance in the century of extremes. Struggles for Belonging. Citizenship in Europe, 1900â2020 (OUP, 2021) demonstrates this thesis by examining the legal institution of citizenship with its deciding influence on the limits of a political community, on in- and exclusion. Citizenship determined a person’s protection, equality, and freedom and thus his or her chances in life and survival. This book recounts the history of citizenship in Europe as the history of European statehood in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, doing so from three vantage points: first, as the development of a legal institution crucial to European constitutionalism; second, as a measure of an individualâs opportunities for self-fulfillment ranging from freedom to totalitarian subjugation; and, third, as a succession of alternating, often sharply divergent political regimes, considered from the perspective of their inclusivity and exclusivity and its justification. Continue reading
Author Archives: Dieter Gosewinkel
Corona and the Renaissance of National Borders
“Viruses do not have a passport”, declared French President Macron[1] on 12 March 2020 in a major television address to the French people. He was particularly interested in the measures taken by neighbouring Germany which had declared the French region of “Grand Est” a “risk area” the day before. Continue reading
Protection and Freedom? Citizenship in Europe in the 20th and 21st Century
Citizenship was the mark of political affiliation in Europe in the twentieth century. While estate, religion, party, class, and nation lost political significance in the century of extremes, citizenship advanced to become the decisive category of political affiliation.
In the centuryâs upheavals and political struggles, the legal institution of citizenship had a decisive influence on the limits of a political community, on in- and exclusion, and thus on an individualâs opportunities in life. Its enfranchisement included the obligation to risk life and limb for the survival of oneâs country in exchange for the right to protection, participation in the expanding political and social rights in the democracies and welfare states of Europe and ultimately access to the new legal status of being a citizen of the European Union. Continue reading
Citoyenneté européenne et crise migratoire
LâEurope connaĂźt actuellement trois crises dont la conjonction soumet lâintĂ©gration europĂ©enne Ă lâĂ©preuve la plus difficile quâelle ait jamais connue depuis la constitution de lâUnion et menace sa pĂ©rennitĂ© Continue reading
Anti-liberal Concepts of Europeanism: Part of the Process of European Integration
The history of how todayâs Europe developed is presented from the present-day perspective, from that of the current form of European integration: a democratic, politically integrated structure based on the rule of law and economic freedoms, growing prosperity and voluntary membership. This structure is characterized by common values in the canon of classical rights to freedom and the obligation for peace. It reflects how, after 1945, the European integration process foreswore excessive violence, pronounced nationalism, and the policy of excessive and authoritarian state control that destroyed freedom during the first half of the century. Continue reading
Ende und RĂŒckkehr der Demarkation – Wandlungen des Staatsangehörigkeitsrechts seit 1989
Der Fall der Mauer 1989 schien das Ende des harten GehĂ€uses der Staatlichkeit in Europa einzulĂ€uten. Gerade in Europa hatte diese Vorstellung eine besondere historische Bedeutung. Jener Kontinent, der Jahrhunderte zuvor den Staat hervorgebracht und dessen territoriale Demarkationen zu scharfen, militĂ€risch bewehrten Grenzen ausgebaut hatte, befreite sich 1989 von einer Grenze, die zum Symbol fĂŒr die ideologische Zweiteilung in antagonistische MachtsphĂ€ren geworden war. Continue reading