Autorentext

By Claus Offe and Ulrich K. Preuss

Klappentext

This interdisciplinary collection of essays by a constitutionalist and a political sociologist examines how fragmented societies can be held together by appropriate and effective constitutional arrangements providing for bonds of democratic citizenship. Exploring the political order dilemmas of capitalist democracies, the authors address moral and institutional prerequisites on which the deepening of European integration depends. The desirability of such deepening is currently contested, with the membership of some states (and their compliance with the spirit of the Union's treaties) at stake. The authors do not consider the 'renationalisation' of Europe to be a feasible (and even less so a desirable) way out of Europe's current malaise. Yet whatever the way out, charting it calls not just for the vision and imagination of political elites but also for the intellectual efforts of social scientists. With this book, Preuß and Offe contribute to those efforts. Key Features: original insights on the nature of the European crisis analysis of how fragmented societies can be held together by appropriate constitutional arrangements how state sovereignty and federal structures can be merged account of the moral prerequisites and resources of democratic polities dilemmas of political order under democratic capitalism

Inhalt

Chapter One - The Union's Course: Between a Supranational Welfare State and Creeping Decay 1

Chapter Two - The Significance of Cognitive and Moral Learning for Democratic Institutions 33

Chapter Three - Democratic Institutions and Moral Resources 49

Chapter Four - Crisis and Innovation of Liberal Democracy: Can Deliberation Be Institutionalised? 73

Chapter Five - Democracy Against the Welfare State? Structural Foundations of Neoconservative Political Opportunities 99

Chapter Six - Toward a New Understanding of Constitutions 129

Chapter Seven - The Political Meaning of Constitutionalism 147

Chapter Eight - Citizenship and Identity: Aspects of a Political Theory of Citizenship 163

Chapter Nine - Competitive Party Democracy and the Keynesian Welfare State: Factors of Stability and Disorganisation 177

Chapter Ten - Main Problems of Contemporary Theory of Democracy and the Uncertain Future of its Practice 199

Chapter Eleven - Constitutionalism in Fragmented Societies: The Integrative Function of Constitutions 211

Chapter Twelve - 'Homogeneity' and Constitutional Democracy: Coping with Identity Conflicts through Group Rights 227

Chapter Thirteen - Perspectives on Post-Conflict Constitutionalism:

Reflections on Regime Change Through External Constitutionalisation 255

Chapter Fourteen - Is There, Or Can There Be, a 'European Society'? 283

Chapter Fifteen - Problems of Constitution Making: Prospects of a Constitution for Europe 301

Chapter Sixteen - Revisiting the Rationale Behind the European Union: The Basis of European Narratives Today and Tomorrow 317

Chapter Seventeen - Citizenship in the European Union: A Paradigm for Transnational Democracy? 341

Chapter Eighteen - The Democratic Welfare State in an Integrating Europe 355

Chapter Nineteen - The Constitution of a European Democracy and the Role of the Nation State 379

Chapter Twenty - The Problem of Legitimacy in the European Polity: Is Democratisation the Answer? 389

Chapter Twenty-One - The European Model of 'Social' Capitalism: Can It Survive European Integration? 417

Chapter Twenty-Two - Two Challenges to European Citizenship 449

Chapter Twenty-Three - Europe Entrapped: Does the EU Have the Political Capacity to Overcome its Current Crisis? 471

Index 491