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
Tag Archives: Europe
Free and Fair Elections: The European Minimum Standards
In 2021, Germany faces important general elections both at the state and the federal level. Holding elections in the middle of a pandemic is challenging. Organizing free and fair elections is even more so. But when is the election free and fair? This piece presents the answers given by the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention) and its authoritative interpreter, the European Court of Human Rights (Court). It devotes special attention to Article 3 Protocol 1 of the Convention, which stipulates that âThe High Contracting Parties undertake to hold free elections at reasonable intervals by secret ballot, under conditions which will ensure the free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of the legislature.â
Wie sich AutoritÀt rechtfertigt: Expertise und demokratische Mehrheiten haben nur begrenzte normative Kraft
Weit verbreitet ist zurzeit das Argument, liberale Demokratien befĂ€nden sich in einer AutoritĂ€tskrise. Was aber ist damit gemeint? Ganz grundsĂ€tzlich meint eine solche Krise, dass AutoritĂ€tsbeziehungen erodieren. Das heiĂt, autoritative Behauptungen werden von ihren Adressaten nicht mehr als bindend anerkannt. Dies ist der Fall, wenn etablierte Rechtfertigungen des AutoritĂ€tsanspruchs versagen oder infrage gestellt werden. Die derzeitige AutoritĂ€tskrise kann als eine solche verstanden werden, in zweifacher Hinsicht: als eine Krise der AutoritĂ€t von Experten und als Krise einer spezifischen Form demokratischer AutoritĂ€t, Continue reading
Reversing the Decline of Constitutional Democracy in Europe
Constitutional democracy is a system of government in which all powers are exercised under a constitution which grows out and is dedicated to the protection of equal human dignity. The latter requires that each and every individual is recognized an equal right to self-fulfilment within the scope of the same right recognized and exercised by others. By making equal human dignity a point of departure as well as the ultimate objective of its functioning, a polity characterized as a constitutional democracy is necessarily permeated by pluralism. 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
Europeâs Area of Freedom, Security and Justice â A Market Endeavor?
What does market regulation have to do with the formation of an EU policy Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ), a domain so inherently connected with human rights protection and constitutional safeguards? After all, the hallmark of the AFSJ project is that of the suppression of crime, terrorism and of ensuring a high level of security throughout Europe, far removed from the essentials of the EU internal market and its insistence on economic freedoms. 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