Languages, Political Cultures and Solidarity in Europe

Abstract

One crucial reason why systems of social protection have remained essentially national is that these systems are bounded empirically (territory, history and language) and are based on 'bonds' which are essential for the actual and situated exercise of politics (citizenship law, reciprocity and identification). Politics in Europe means the use of diverse languages, and there is no imaginable way of circumventing this empirical fact of democracy. At the same time, the politicization of cross-EU matters is increasing. Hence, understanding how solidarity fares and will fare across the EU members has to be firmly based on the understanding of the social processes at the national level, and should situate them in the wider polity of European integration. It is precisely at a time - the present crisis - when élites have really started, albeit reluctantly, to try and 'jump over their shadows ('über ihren Schatten springen', to use Jürgen Habermas' expression), that they are confronted most importantly with the language issue and the tenacious resilience of political cultures, and, so far, they have doggedly endeavoured to ignore it.

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