Europe and the Common
- Jonathan White⇑
About the Author
Jonathan White is Lecturer in European Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests lie in the fields of political sociology and political theory, with a particular focus on contemporary European democracy and EU integration. Prior to joining the LSE he was an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Humboldt University in Berlin, a doctoral researcher at the European University Institute and a visiting scholar at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He has also taught at universities in the Czech Republic and Albania.
- Jonathan White, European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK; email: j.p.white{at}lse.ac.uk
Abstract
Significant attention has been given to the necessary conditions for a viable and legitimate European polity. Drawing on traditions in political philosophy, a central strand of this debate has concerned what must be common to a set of people such that they may be ruled through the same institutions, with various types of collective bond proposed as possible bases for political community. The argument of this article is that many such approaches, which conceive a bond in terms of shared interests, cultural attributes or shared values and principles, are liable either to underplay or to overplay how much the citizens of a polity must have in common, tending either to empty public life of the pursuit of shared ends or conversely to downgrade the importance of adversarialism. Both may be seen as depoliticising moves. The article goes on to explore how a more explicitly political bond, based on the appraisal of political problems, might be conceived for a European polity.
- Accepted June 23, 2008.
- © 2009 The Author
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