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Lecture Altiero Spinelli 2007

BRONISŁAW GEREMEK debates about "L’Europe au défi de la démocratie"


Discusser: Bronisław Geremek, October 30th 2007
University of Turin, Aula Magna, Via Verdi 8 - Turin


 

Every civilisation defines the rights its constituents shall enjoy in its own way; in 1998, the Nobel Prize was awarded to Amartya Sen because he demonstrated the link between democracy and the success of the fight against widespread famines: democracy is a “social choice”, the respect of individual liberties, of the plurality of ideas and of political practices. Although such principles are rooted in the Asian, African and European civilisations, it is certainly in the latter that the principles of democracy, the rule of law and human rights are better established today. These constitute the basis on which the European Union is founding its neighbourhood policy. However, these beliefs have been attained following complex historical evolution. Due to the very fact that it is always treading in the flow of historical changes, democracy is always a challenge: against centralising thrusts, against attempts at autonomy by its lower levels. In the European Union, structures have been formed that allow democracy to exist, but this only became possible after the communist system collapsed. Among the enemies of democracy, people often mention populism, which makes use of the capital of hostility and aggression that can be found in the psychology of the masses. In Europe, populism has enjoyed different chronological and geographical moments: from Austria to Central Europe. It grows where the democratic structures are undermined, when people tend to think that elections may not be so important after all. But active participation in democracy will be the only way to defeat populism, which avails itself of the instruments of democracy to emerge, but is then unable to keep the promises it makes to its voters. The ongoing transformation is questioning the function of the nation-State, as it was conceived of in the 19th century; supra-national interdependencies impose choices that cannot be made at national level only and this requires the creation of new institutional forms in which citizens can participate. For democracy to flourish once again, it is absolutely necessary to make sure that politics be a matter of people, a result of their participation in the res publica.


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