EuropeanDemos: Democracy Deficit and National Feelings

• Authors: Vytautas Rubavičius

Title variants

LT

Europietiškasisdemos: demokratijos stoka ir nacionaliniai jausmai

Abstracts

EN

The level and scope of European Union (EU) integration activities are showing the aspects of civilizational development with a huge impact on the world system of civilizations and make more evident the fact that the future of EU depends on the attitude of European policy-makers to the national, cultural, and political identities. Interest in the identities has been reinforced in recent years by the failure of EU Constitutional Treaty and further attempts to reach an agreement about the new Treaty. This failure stimulated cogitations on both the subject of Constitutional Treaty and the features of the Europeandemos. Spirited discussions pointed to the so called "deficits" - "community deficit", "legitimacy deficit" and, as a consequence, to the "democracy deficit". Thus EU future can be seen as depending on the removal of these "deficits". How can this be done under the prevailing political attitude of denationalization? The problem of Europeandemoswas aggravated by the enlargement of EU: new Member states are loaded with different historic experience and clearly visible features of national sense. National feelings have been the main force raising people for national liberation movement or national revival. This experience must be taken into account while discussing new political guidelines for the construction of Europeandemos. The social content ofdemos, including identity, common history and the sense of "unity in diversity", could be accumulated through the loyalties and bonds of affection to one's nation, culture, language, and historical myths; thus, the attitude of denationalization requires a modification.

LT

Santrauka Gilinantis į Europos Sąjungą (ES), kaip į pasaulinę civilizacijų sistemą keičiančio civilizacinio darinio integracinius procesus, aiškėja, kad ES ateitis priklausys nuo to, koks požiūris į nacionalinius, etnokultūrinius bei politinius tapatumus įsivyraus tarp šios bendrijos politikos formuotojų. Domėtis įvairiais tapatumais paskatino ES Konstitucinės Sutarties nesėkmė, sukėlusi svarstymų bangą apie naują Europos "išradimą" ar "pagrindimą". Keltas esminis klausimas - kas yra Konstitucinės Sutarties subjektas ir kokie europietiškojodemosbruožai? Išryškėjo ES būdingos demokratijos, legitimumo ir visuomenės stokos, tad tolesnė integracija įsivaizduotina kaip jų šalinimo vyksmas. Klausimas - kaip šitai galima daryti vyraujant politinei denacionalizavimo nuostatai, kuri buvo įtvirtinta dedant naujos Europos pagrindus? Politinę denacionalizacijos nuostatą palaiko pastaraisiais metais išplitę postnacionalinio tapatumo, europinio konstitucinio patriotizmo, taip pat besąlygiško svetingumo diskursai. Legitimumo ir kitokių stokų bei europietiškojodemosproblemos ypač suaktualėjo išsiplėtus ES. Priimtų valstybių visuomenėms ir tautoms būdinga kitokia istorinė patirtis, stipresni nacionaliniai jausmai, kurie ir padėjo išsivaduoti iš sovietinės okupacijos. Į šias jausenas būtina atsižvelgti svarstant europietiškojodemoskūrimo planus. Socialinį europinės visuomenės turinį derėtų kaupti ir kurti ne atmetant nacionalines jausenas, o pasitelkiant prisirišimą prie tautos, kultūros, kalbos bei istorinių mitų, tad kyla būtinumas keisti politinę denacionalizavimo nuostatą.

Keywords

EN

denationalization; EU Constitutional Treaty; European <i>demos</i>; legitimacy deficit; national identity; nationalism; Soviet occupation

LT

denacionalizacija; ES Konstitucinė Sutartis; europietiškasis <i>demos</i>; legitimumo stoka; nacionalinis tapatumas; nacionalizmas; sovietinė okupacija

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Limes. Cultural Regionalistics
• Year: 2009
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 93-105

Contributors

author

Vytautas Rubavičius

• Department of the Comparativistic Studies of Culture, Culture, Philosophy and Arts Research Institute, Saltoniškių g. 58, LT-08105 Vilnius, Lithuania

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Identifiers

DOI

10.3846/2029-0187.2009.2.93-105