Abstract
The current feeling of political crisis in the European Union is fuelled by a dual evolution that began in 1989. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the failure of the totalitarian venture, the prospect of accession for Central and Eastern European States to the European Union became an event of prime importance. This evolution very soon became double-edged, however, as the unification of the continent was immediately coupled with anxiety at the time of the break-up of former Yugoslavia. The “end of the story” was accompanied in parallel by a doubt with regard to the future, or, in any case, the feeling that events taking place were totally unique1. It is in this context that the idea of “crisis” developed. In her book Between Past and Future, Hannah Arendt defines the notion of “crisis” as an unprecedented situation, introducing a break from the past that would no longer provide the resources to think of the present and find one’s bearings in the future2.
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References
We can recall the book by F. Fukuyama, La fin de l’histoire et le dernier homme, Paris, Flammarion, 1992.
H. Arendt, Between Past and Future (1954). It is also useful to read the article by C. Lefort, “L’imaginaire de la crise”, in Commentaire, no. 79, autumn 1997.
It is important to specify that such a feeling undoubtedly varies among the different Member States and the diversity of national public opinions, at least among the majority of States that form the historic core of European integration and countries recently emerged from communism.
Cf. L. Cohen-Tanugi, “The End of Europe?” in Foreign Affairs, Nov-Dec, no. 6, Vol. 84, 2005–2006.
It seems to us that the European Union can be examined based on the concept of “impolitic democracy” that we have borrowed from P. Rosanvallon. Cf. La contre-démocratie. La politique à l’âge de la défiance, Paris, Le Seuil, 2006.
Cf. M. Foucher, “Peut-on vivre sans frontières?” in N. Gnesotto and M. Rocard (dir.), Notre Europe, Paris, Robert Laffont, p. 161.
For recent analysis on this point, cf. M. Foucher, L’Europe et l’avenir du monde, Paris, Odile Jacob, 2009.
We refer to the article by K. Nicolaïdis and J. Pélabay, “Comment raconter l’Europe tout en prenant la diversité narrative au sérieux?” in Raison publique, no. 7, Paris, Presses universitaires de la Sorbonne, 2007, p. 63–83.
We have further developed this point elsewhere and we would like to refer you to C. Lequesne, La France dans la nouvelle Europe. Assumer le changement d’échelle, Paris, Presses de Sciences Po, 2008 and to T. Chopin, France-Europe. Le bal des hypocrites, Paris, Saint-Simon, 2008.
As an illustration, see J.-L. Bourlanges, “L’Europe fait semblant” in Le Monde, 1st December 2007.
See C. Lequesne, “La génération de la dissidence, l’idée européenne et la divergence transatlantique,” Esprit, October 2009.
Cf. B. Manin, “Les deux libéralismes: marché ou contre-pouvoirs,” in Intervention, no. 9, May-July 1984.
Cf. T. Chopin, “La France, L’Europe et le libéralisme,” in Commentaire, no. 115, autumn 2006.
Cf. P. Hassner, “Ni sang ni sol? Crise de l’Europe et dialectique de la territorialité” (1996), text also features in La terreur et l’empire, Paris, Le Seuil, 2003.
On this point we can refer to D. Cohen, La prospérité du vice. Introduction inquiète à l’économie, Paris, Albin Michel, 2009, chap. IX, “La fin des solidarités”.
This demand can be found at the heart of political liberalism and the work of Benjamin Constant, for example, can convince us of this.
P. Hassner, «L’Europe et le spectre des nationalismes», Esprit, october 1991.
L. Siedentop, “A crisis of Legitimacy”, in Prospect, july 2005.
L. Siedentop, Democracy in Europe.
Ibid.
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Chopin, T., Lequesne, C. (2010). 20 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall: Freedom is the New Common Narrative of Europe. In: State of the Union 2010. Springer, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-2-8178-0175-9_4
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