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)

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

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

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

Welfare state formation in the enlarged European Union - patterns of reform in the post-communist new member states

"Die Osterweiterung der Europäischen Union bietet nicht zuletzt auch Herausforderungen für die westeuropäischen Wohlfahrtsstaaten, die in der Literatur häufig als Bedrohung analysiert werden. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht die Entwicklung der Sozialversicherungssysteme in acht postsozialistischen Staaten, die 2004 in die Europäische Union aufgenommen wurden, Estland, Lettland, Litauen, Polen, Slowakei, Slowenien, Ungarn und die tschechische Republik (EU-8). Wir untersuchen sowohl institutionelle Designs und Performance als auch den Einfluss externer und interner Akteure auf die wohlfahrtsstaatliche Entwicklung in diesen Ländern. Wie unterscheiden sie sich von westeuropäischen Wohlfahrtsstaaten und wie passen sie in gängige Typologien von Wohlfahrtsstaat-Regimen?" (Autorenreferat)"Eastern Enlargement of the European Union challenged the design of European Welfare states. Many authors discuss the impact of East European social security systems on their West European counterparts and fear a 'race to the bottom'. This paper addresses welfare state developments in the eight post-socialist new member states which completed the accession process in 2004, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia (EU-8). We focus on institutional patterns and performance as well as on the impact of internal and external actors of welfare state formation. How do the EU-8 diverge from West European welfare states and how do they fit into the typology of welfare state regimes?" (author's abstract

El parany d’Europa

En el número 43 de la revista L'Espill trobaràs un dossier monogràfic sobre "Crisi i futur de la televisió", amb contribucions de Josep-Lluís Gómez Mompart, Rafael Xambó, Enric Marín i Otto, Enrique Bustamante, Lola Bañón Castellón i Emili Prado. A més, articles de Claus Offe, Ernest Garcia, Raimon Ribera, Francescesc J. Hernàndez i Alícia Villar, Ramon Lapiedra i Mercè Rius, així com documents de Franco Moretti, un full de dietari de Maria Josep Escrivà i notes de Joaquim Elcacho

Szociális védelem szupranacionális összefüggésben

A tanulmányban tárgyalandó három kérdés* a következő: (1) Létezik-e valamilyen „európai” kapitalizmus, vagy egy sajátosan „európai” társadalmi rend? Vannak-e olyan intézményi és szerkezeti jellegzetességek, amelyek többé-kevésbé minden európai országban fellelhetőek és csak európai országokban lelhetők fel? Miben különböznek az európai országok és társadalmak, összehasonlítva az angolszász világ liberális országaival? (2) Ha létezik sajátosan európai társadalom, milyen történelmi okokkal magyarázhatóak és milyen normatív és funkcionális feltételekkel igazolhatóak az európai kapitalizmusok megkülönböztető jegyei, illetve közös jellegzetességei? (3) Mit várhatunk és jósolhatunk az európai integrációnak az európai „szociálkapitalizmus” sajátosságaira gyakorolt hatásával kapcsolatban? Vajon az európai társadalmak közeledni fognak-e egymáshoz az európai nemzetállamok által megjelenített és az azoktól örökölt sajátos európai „szociális modell” jegyében végbemenő integráció folyamatában, vagy a fejlődési trendekkel kapcsolatos bizonyítékok ennek ellenkezőjét valószínűsítik? Ez utóbbi esetben az európai integráció aláássa az Európai Unió kialakuló politikai és gazdasági rendjének „európai jellegét”