The Problem of Legitimacy in the European Polity. Is Democratization the Answer?

The authors discuss potential sources of legitimacy of the EU, i. e. of the normative bindingness of its decisions. After rejecting the views that such legitimacy is either not needed, not feasible, or provided for already, they focus upon the corrosive impact of the EU upon democratic legitimacy within member states. Brussels-based 'governance' is essentially uncontested and can hardly provide for the legitimacy that results from the interplay between government and opposition within nation states. The problem boils down to achieving legitimacy in the absence of the political community of a 'demos'. The paper outlines a solution to this problem that relies on the apparently oxymoronic model of a 'republican empire' - a political community, that is, which is held together not by the bonds of some presumed sameness, but, to the contrary, by the shared contractual recognition of the dissimilarity of its constituent parts from which legitimacy can flow.democracy; legitimacy; diversity/homogeneity; governance; democratization

The democratic welfare state: a European regime under the strain of European integration

'Staaten sind nicht nur 'vertikale' Organisationen politischer Herrschaft. Vielmehr basiert die staatliche Herrschaftsordnung auf Strukturen der Binnenintegration ('Vergemeinschaftung'), die über alle Konflikte und Besonderheiten hinweg das horizontale Verhältnis der Bürger zueinander bestimmen. Diese Binnenintegration muss nicht 'ethnischer', sondern kann sehr wohl republikanischer Natur sein und dann als sozialintegrative Voraussetzung für Demokratie und Wohlfahrtsstaat dienen. Wenn das zutrifft, stellt sich die Frage nach dem möglichen Modus politischer Integration im europäischen Maßstab. Gibt es Traditionen, Identitäten und Zielbestimmungen ('finalite'), die zwischen allen Europäern Vertrauen und Solidarität begründen können? Der Verfasser prüft die in Betracht kommenden Antworten auf diese Frage und kommt zu dem skeptischen Ergebnis, dass die sozialmoralischen Grundlagen einer europaweiten Demokratie und eines kontinentalen Wohlfahrtsregimes keineswegs evident sind.' (Autorenreferat)'States are organizations of governance that apply to the people living in a defined territory. But in order to sustain such governance, the people must not just individually obey the law, but also collectively conceive of themselves as 'We, the people...', with whom the law originates. For only if I, the individual citizen, have reasons to trust that, they, my fellow citizens, are actually willing to also obey the law, I'll do so myself. This indispensible sense of belonging to a civic community can be based upon a variety of factors: ethno-cultural, linguistic, civic republican (as in 'constitutional patriotism') or social justice. Applying this notion of an indispensible civic infrastructure to the case of European integration, the author discusses a number of potential sources from which the view might be derived that what happens in Europe is a matter of 'us, the Europeans'. In the absence of a democratic regime in Europe, as well as a European welfare state (to say nothing about a strictly 'European culture'), it is not easy to find out possible foundations of European 'identity'.' (author's abstract)

La «barbarie» moderna, ¿un microestado de la naturaleza?

En este trabajo, el autor introduce una importante consideración en el análisis de la barbarie. A su juicio, no hay únicamente una constelación dicotómica con un sujeto actor, el perpetrador, y un sujeto paciente, la víctima, sino una constelación triangular en la que se desoculta al espectador que calla u omite, insensibilizado moralmente, las acciones que «más allá del bien y del mal» realiza el perpetrador contra la víctima.In this paper the author introduces one important consideration related to the analysis of barbarity. According to him there is no only one two sided constellation shaped by the acting subject, the perpetrator, and an subject transformed in an object upon which is done violence, the victim, but a «triangular" constellation in which the observer, morally neutralized, who wilfully forgets actions that «beyond good and evil" does the perpetrator against the victim, is unhide

Political Liberalism, Group Rights, and the Politics of Fear and Trust

This article discusses some of the peculiarities of the “fourth” wave of new democracies, those having emerged in Central East Europe. It also focuses on the “fourth” family of democratic rights which are being demanded not just in this but many other democratic regions; the demand for “group” rights, in addition to civil, democratic, and social rights. The argument explores some of the promises and limitations of “federalist” solutions to the problem of political community

Designing institutions for East European transitions

"This paper is divided in just two main sections. The first section of this paper serves conceptual purposes. I lay out a dualist concept of institutions and contrast it to related concepts such as organization, norm, and convention. The second part looks at institutions in a longitudinal perspective. What happens to them over time, how can we explain what happens, and how can we intentionally determine what happens to institutions and, as a consequence, to those living under these institutions? In this preliminary draft version, the reference to East and Central European transitions from communist regimes is still casual and unsystematic, but in a later version I intend to fill in more complete and specific references to the institutional design problems of these countries as they pertain to liberalization, democratization, and privatization." [author's abstract

Finding alternative methods to assess cognitive function

In 2016, about 18% of the total population were aged 65 and above in the UK, and in 2066, it is projected that the size of this population will double to 26% (ONS, 2020). However, increasing age is a cardinal risk factor for decreased cognitive function, where patients are initially screened with a set of questions that can make some people feel stupid (Hellström et al., 2017). This research attempts to deduce an alternative method of assessing cognitive function by using standing balance and salivary biomarkers, which will be invaluable during the initial triaging of older adults with memory complaints

Finding alternative methods to assess cognitive function

In 2016, about 18% of the total population were aged 65 and above in the UK, and in 2066, it is projected that the size of this population will double to 26% (ONS, 2020). However, increasing age is a cardinal risk factor for decreased cognitive function, where patients are initially screened with a set of questions that can make some people feel stupid (Hellström et al., 2017). This research attempts to deduce an alternative method of assessing cognitive function by using standing balance and salivary biomarkers, which will be invaluable during the initial triaging of older adults with memory complaints