This article examines Taylor’s approach to the conception of civil society and attempts to interpret the relation of this approach to contemporary debates on the forming of European civil society. By way of introduction, Taylor’s interpretation of the medieval socio-political assumptions for the creation of the extra-political public sphere is presented. Next, there is a discussion of Taylor’s interpretational conception of the two most significant traditions of civil society which take their rise from a confrontation with European enlightenment absolutism - the traditions of Locke and Montesquieu. The author attempts to make sense of the way in which Taylor’s approach resonates with the concept of civil society in discussions about the presuppositions and forms of the creation of the European public sphere and trans-national (European) identities as two key forms of European civil society. In conclusion, the concept of the active border is presented as a key matrix of the conceptual constellation of the public sphere, identity and Europeanisation., Karel B. Müller., and Obsahuje poznámky a bibliografii
The article draws on the theory of reflexive modernisation (Beck, Giddens) and suggests that the crisis of the welfare state in Europe is triggering a need to strengthen European civil society. Following this idea it is argued that there are pathological elements in the process of the formation of European national identities currently (previously) under way, wherein the constructions of identities are prevailingly negative. It is suggested that Europeans need to maintain and foster feelings of mutuality and belonging in order to protect achieved economic welfare, political liberties, and cultural diversity, and to increase their political and cultural capacity to tackle the challenges of globalisation. First, the author examines the context of identity formation within the process of modernisation, and second, he discusses the arguments put forth in Erik Erikson's well-known theory of identity formation, in order to explore the preconditions, forms, and possibilities of political identity formation within the EU, especially the dynamics between the public sphere and identity-forming processes.
Expanding the domain of majority rule is widely seen as desirable for the European Union. But the functioning of majority rule depends on preconditions that are seldom taken into account. The basic precondition is that overruled minorities accept majority decisions instead of exiting the voting unit. The specific problem of applying majority rule in the European Union is that overruled minorities at the European level are majorities at the nation-state level. By distinguishing between three dimensions of conflicts - content, time and space - the article analyses under what conditions it is possible to expect minorities to accept majority decisions, thus enabling the resolution of conflict by majority rule at the European level.