Republican Europe and Multicultural Citizenship

Abstract

This article explores the possibilities for a normative understanding of the politics of EU development from a republican perspective. It draws on current debates on republicanism, which combine republican, liberal and multicultural themes, and defends an approach to European citizenship and the design of European institutions in which the contemporary republican emphasis on freedom as non-domination is complemented with the multiculturalist concern with group rights that cut across national boundaries. It is argued that the combination of republican institutions and multicultural citizenship can provide a model for European construction.Early federalist approaches to the construction of a European polity were keen to encourage the conditions that would enable the adoption of a 'constitution for Europe'. The role for a new polity of the existence of the 'founders of a new order' (see Pocock, 1988) can be crucial, and the existence of a 'constitutional moment' in the case of the European polity would simultaneously facilitate stability and long-term predictability and provide the new order with elements of a political myth. Instead of a 'constitutional moment', Europe has been constructed in a process of gradual transformation and is likely to continue along the path of revisions, shifts and reconfigurations.Despite the lack of an unambiguous constitutional founding, developments at least since the Treaty on European Union (TEU) prompt us to view the EU as an emerging political system of a non-state type (see Quermonne,

The Eurocentrism of neo-Roman republicanism and the neglect of republican empire

“…For this strand of contemporary thought, republicanism can act as a progressive approach towards global governance and international order. Political theorists present republicanism as offering a model for European integration (Bellamy and Castiglione, 2000; Lavdas, 2001; Chryssochoou, 2011; Bellamy, 2013) and as a call to create a ‘global public sphere’ (Southwood, 2002: 39). The ideal of non-domination is then used to advocate a universalized programme of emancipation that can be presented to support an aspiration of creating a republican ‘civic’ global community.…”

New directions in theory-building

“…Lavdas, for instance, draws on Pettit's seminal study on freedom as non-domination -as opposed to a negative conception of liberty as non-interference, or to a positive conception of it as self-mastery -to argue that the larger polity may develop in the future the democratic functions of institutionalised public deliberation (and a corresponding concern with active or participatory citizenship), which are necessary, but not sufficient, conditions for a more 'democentric' process of union. 73 Given the absence of an engaging European demos, a republican mode of governance emanates as an appropriate means of disentangling 'the issue of participation in an emerging polity from the cultural and emotional dimensions of citizenship as pre-existing affinity and a confirmation of belonging' . 74 The point here is that 'some elements of the real and symbolic res publica, may sustain a degree of political motivation vis-à-vis the Union and its relevance for peoples' lives while also allowing for other and more intense forms of motivation and involvement at other levels of participation' .…”

Normative Evolution in Europe: Small States and Republican Peace

“…Seen from this prism, a Republic of Europeans (Lavdas 2001;Lavdas and 11 For excellent overviews covering different aspects of the republican themes in their domestic and international applications see Brugger (1999), Schwarzmantel (2003) and Onuf (1998). 12 Differences and variation in citizen orientations towards political phenomena comprise much of what makes political analysis a challenging field.…”