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Does Europe Need Common Values?

Habermas vs Habermas

Université libre de Bruxelles, jlacroix{at}ulb.ac.be

This article argues that there is a discrepancy between Jürgen Habermas's initial plea for critical and rational identities and his more recent glorification of the European model. Initially, Constitutional Patriotism could be apprehended as a critical standard for existing political practices. However, Habermas's recent political texts tend to lose all kind of reflexive distance in their apprehension of the European identity — which is presented as distinct and even superior to its counter-model, the US. Such a `Europatriotic' temptation should be resisted. The `thick' European identity advocated by Habermas has no truly federative dimension and could undermine the unique normative potential of a political entity composed of distinct identities. Consequently, the article suggests an elucidation of liberal postnationalism with a view to explaining its refusal to tie Europe's legitimacy to an identification logic.

Key Words: constitutional patriotism • Europe • Habermas • identity • postnationalism • values

European Journal of Political Theory, Vol. 8, No. 2, 141-156 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1474885108100850


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