As a consequence of various rounds of EU enlargements, the degree of cultural diversity in Europe has intensified a phenomenon which is increasingly perceived as problematic by many EU citizens. This fascinating book not only empirically explores the current state of the identity and the legitimacy of the EU as viewed by its citizens, but also evaluates their attitudes towards it. The expert contributors show that the development of a European identity and a common European culture is a prerequisite for European integration; that European identity and a common political culture will not develop rapidly but emerge slowly, and that the beginnings of a European identity and a common European culture are currently emerging. The roles of civil society organizations and political parties are examined within this context, and an explanatory model with subjective predictors of the attitudes towards the EU is tested. The empirical analysis is underpinned by a theoretical framework incorporating operational definitions and conceptual discussion of legitimacy and identity. This intriguing and thought-provoking book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and students focusing on political science and international relations.

This book presents a systematic account of the relationship between political parties and deliberative democracy. It shows which parties prefer deliberation, how intra-party deliberation takes place in practice beyond theoretical models and general descriptions, and how political elites and party members perceive deliberative democracy. Specifically, the book answers how party characteristics influence the use of deliberation by political parties, why intra-party deliberation differs in its use and functioning across parties, and how politicians and party members see deliberation. This book is of key interest to scholars and students of party politics, deliberative democracy, democratic innovations, political theory, and, more broadly, comparative politics.

What role does linguistic diversity play in European democratic and legal processes? Is it an obstacle to deliberative democracy and a hindrance to legal certainty, or a cultural and economic asset and a prerequisite for the free movement of citizens? This book examines the tensions and contradictions of European language laws and policy from a multi-disciplinary perspective. With contributions from leading researchers in EU law and legal theory, political science, sociology, sociolinguistic and cognitive linguistics, it combines mutually exclusive and competing perspectives of linguistic diversity. The work will be a valuable resource for academics and researchers in the areas of European law, legal theory and linguistics.

This book engages critically with debates about linguistic continuity and cultural survival in relation to Europe's authochthonous minorities. Focusing on Scotland's Gaels and Lusatia's Sorbs/Wends, it analyses and evaluates competing assumptions, rationales and ideologies which have shaped previous and present language revitalisation initiatives and that continue to pose dilemmas to language planners and politicians in the UK, Germany and beyond.

Recent developments in the European integration process have raised, amongst many other things, the issue of linguistic diversity, for some a stumbling block to the creation of a European democratic polity and its legal and social institutions. The solution to the 'question of language', involves an understanding of the role played by natural languages and the consequent design of policies and institutional mechanisms to facilitate inter-linguistic and intercultural communication. This is not an exclusively European problem, and nor is it entirely new, for it is also the problem of linguistic majorities and minorities within unitary nation-states. However, the effects of globalization and the diffusion of multiculturalism within nation-states have given renewed emphasis to the question of language in diverse societies. Facing the question anew involves reconsidering traditional ideas about social communication and the public sphere, about opinion-formation and diffusion, about the protection of cultural and linguistic minorities, and about the role that language plays in the process of formation of political and legal cultures. This volume is intended as a multidisciplinary contribution towards studying and assessing the range of problems that form the 'language question' in Europe and diverse societies.

An assessment of the European Court of Human Rights at the national, European and international levels.

This collection of articles devoted to Europe was born from the urgent need to present the specificity of European culture, both its unity and diversity, and at the same time create a stimulating dialogue about European culture and its complexities. European culture, considered as all inherited beliefs and values behind social action, has been treated in the past as a complex phenomenon of superior value, as the result of a common past among European nations, the permeation of various cultural elements between cultures, and their absorption in different contexts. In the past the process of shaping European identity was often fierce and dramatic, influenced by the events taking place within, but also outside European borders. Now, it has undergone various transformations as a result of new political, economic and cultural challenges. For this reason, the authors and editors of this volume place emphasis on diachronic perspectives: their approaches often consider local European issues against a global background.

Both India and Europe have been undergoing a difficult process of negotiating cultural, religious and ethnic diversity within their democratic frameworks. In fact, recent incidents of xenophobic backlash against multiculturalism and minority communities in Europe, as well as myriad movements for constitutional recognition of castes, tribes and languages and the emergence of Islamophobic terror in India, question the conventional idea of democracy as the idyllic preserver of diversity. This volume contests the simplistic connection between democracy and diversity by proposing that democracy, in fact, produces, sediments and reinforces cultural heterogeneity. It argues that in democratic polities, disparate cultural practices are often converted into identity categories, with disturbing implications for national identity, constitutionalism, political governance and citizenship. While mobilizations on the plank of cultural differences are typically viewed as being born in undemocratic spaces with little toleration for diversity, they also find fertile soil in democracy insofar as democracy celebrates diversity and allows cultural dissent to thrive. Such dissent, while essential for democracy, has difficult consequences. Examining the fundamental conflict between constructions of particular cultural identities and mandates of a unifying democratic ethos, the book brings forth the complexities underlying the politics of identity recognition and national integration. In making a radical intervention in the discourse, this volume offers a critique of existing paradigms of multiculturalism. It will interest scholars and students of political science, sociology, and postcolonial and comparative studies.

Drawing on political, legal, national, post-national, as well as American and European perspectives, this collection of essays offers a diverse and balanced discussion of the current arguments concerning deliberative democracy. Its contributions' focus on discontent, provide a critical assessment of the benefits of deliberation and also respond to the strongest criticisms of the idea of democratic deliberation. The essays consider the three basic questions of why, how and where to deliberate democratically. This book will be of value not only to political and democratic theorists, but also to legal philosophers and constitutional theorists, and all those interested in the legitimacy of decision-making in national and post-national pluralistic polities.