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EU democracy should be based on the principle of respecting diverse identities, not uniting through the creation of a European demos

Innerarity, D. (2014) “EU democracy should be based on the principle of respecting diverse identities, not uniting through the creation of a European demos“, LSE EUROPP, 09 July.

 

Is the development of a European ‘demos’ necessary for the EU to be democratic? Daniel Innerarity writes that while a shared demos is often put forward as a fundamental aspect of democracy, it also entails certain negative developments, such as a tendency toward excluding those from outside of the group. He argues that the EU should be seen as an opportunity to build a community based on respecting the complex nature of European identification, rather than producing a single identity shared by all EU citizens.

Democratic decisions, we are assured, take place at the heart of political communities that are based on confidence and solidarity, while nothing similar exists within a transnational political community. Against those who consider Europe cannot be truly democratic because it has no demos, I think that 1) these types of solidarities can be constructed on a level that presents different characteristics of state space and, furthermore, 2) they have a constructive or emerging character that does not stem so much from old identifications as from practices shared through time and future expectations.

The sceptical point of view over-estimates the values that collective action would require (these values are not that substantive or unattainable and can be created by intense cooperation) while simultaneously under-estimating the force of reasons in the coordination of actions. History shows us the extent to which identities and solidarities are constructed; noting this contingency allows us to understand them as something that can erode and even disappear, but that can also spring up and increase through collaborative processes. Why not in the European Union? Why can there not be community building – creating confidence and solidarity – where there once was nation building, at least the creation of the minimum community that would be required by the solidarity that current circumstances demand? The Eurobarometer is a measuring tool, not a normative institution.

 

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