The Common Background of Citizenship as the “Core” of European Federalizing Process. A comparison with the American Experience (original) (raw)

European Union citizenship in the federalist perspective

Polish Journal of Political Science, 2019

The article analyses the importance of the existence and func-tioning of European Union (EU) citizenship institutions for ma-terialization of federal concepts of European integration. In the first place, the evolution of this institution and legal foundations of its functioning have been analysed. The second part of the article is aimed at answering the question to what extent EU citizenship may be regarded as a federal institution. Then the issue of the importance of this institution for building political identity of Europeans should be considered.

Some Thoughts on Theorizing European Citizenship

Innovation - The European Journal of Social Science Research, 1999

The purpose of this contribution is to try to identify certain generic features of political order that would necessarily characterize any future Europe, and to try to draw some conclusions from them. Whether the idea of generic features of political order as such makes sense is far from clear. If, however, one introduces the additional, fairly reasonable consideration that any future Europe will give normative significance to the principle of democracy and invoke some form of liberal representative government, things become easier to handle. Henrik Kreutz's concern about the question of citizenship is well known. He was among the first thinkers advocating dual citizenship and thus granting rights to migrants. Henrik Kreutz's visions about a common Europe and his warnings against an imperialistic attitude in this respect are very challenging and an incentive for further research. Without going into depth on these questions this article might contribute to further discussions.

Which Citizenship? Whose Citizenship? The many paradoxes of EUropean citizenship

The three central theses of this article are as follows. First, “European citizenship” is an unhappy misnomer. Those holding the status of “European citizens” do enjoy a certain number of rights and have a number of obligations as European citizens. But such rights and obligations fall widely short of those proper of citizenship in a normatively demanding sense (or what is the same, in the sense that is proper of the Social and Democratic Rechtsstaat). So European citizenship is no citizenship. Second, the “gap” between European citizenship and citizenship in a normative sense has been customarily accounted by reference to the “embryonic” character of European citizenship. European citizenship will be a citizenship in the making. misnomer “European citizenship” is an increasingly dangerous one. Some of the rights that make up “European citizenship” do undermine the very ground on which citizenship (normatively demanding citizenship) rests. The economic rights that are a crucial component of European citizenship (the four economic freedoms as constructed by the European Court of Justice and applied by the European Commission) undercut the collective goods that constitute the backbone of the Social and Democratic Rechtsstaat. .. Third, it is urgent that European citizenship is redefined in line with the normative ideal of citizenship in the Social and Democratic Rechtsstaat.

The Promotion of 'SYMMETRICAL' European Citizenship: A Federal Perspective

Journal of European Integration, 2003

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate about symmetrical citizenship at the European level by searching out new areas for consideration, in particular the judicial politics of European citizenship. Using a federal comparative perspective, it sheds light on the potential role the European Court of Justice (ECJ) could play in promoting symmetrical citizenship through the comparison with the experience of the early United States and of its Supreme Court. This paper proceeds to discuss why the ECJ has not acted in a way similar to that of the US Supreme Court, and concludes by offering some recommendations for a possible role of the ECJ as a critical agent in the promotion of Union citizenship beyond the economic sphere.

The concept of European citizenship

2006

The recognition of European citizenship by the Treaty on European Union (Treaty of Maastricht) introduced a novel legal institution into the European construction, hitherto unknown in international law. Its historical importance and nature will be analysed through different perspectives. The analysis of the structure of European citizenship reveals main advantages and disadvantages of the current concept. However, in its current form, it offers a very limited list of rights. Until recently, citizens’ rights were neglected and invisible at the level of the European Union. This is especially visible in the policies towards the candidate and accession countries, which are obliged to follow certain human rights standards in order to meet the conditions for membership. The importance and meaning of European citizenship for third country nationals has been emphasised over the last few years.

Citizenship in Europe: The Main Stages of Development of the Idea and Institution

Studia Europejskie - Studies in European Affairs, 2021

This paper identifies and synthetically demonstrates the most important steps and changes in the evolution of the idea and institution of citizenship in Europe over more than two thousand years. Citizenship is one of the essential categories defi ning human status. From a historical perspective , the idea of citizenship in Europe is in a state of constant evolution. Therefore, the essence of the institution of citizenship and its acquisition criteria are continually being transformed. Today's comprehension of citizenship is different from understanding citizenship in Europe in earlier epochs of history. In some of them, the concept of citizenship existed only in the realm of ideas. In others, the idea materialised, and membership in the state (or city) and civic rights and obligations found a formal, legal expression. The formation of the idea and institution of citizenship is a long and multi-phase process.

A New Citizenship? National and European Legal Identities from a Historical Perspective.

This is a report on the emerging notion of European citizenship, considered primarily as a legal status. It begins by surveying the current law of European citizenship and by reviewing recent discussions of this concept in the relevant legal and political literature. In particular, there is a focus on the relationship between what is today viewed as the traditional citizenship of a nation-state and the apparently new invention of a transnational European citizenship. Historical genealogies of both ideas provide the background for a broader case that European citizenship is a more coherent and less novel notion than previously thought, and that it is able to co-exist with continuing membership of a nation-state in a two-tier system. This argument draws inspiration from the continental Roman (civil) law tradition, which provides a historical parallel to contemporary developments. The report concludes with the proposition that, if the aim is to create a united European state, then it is necessary to increase the significance of European citizenship, which should become the primary status of citizens of the proposed union, yet exist side-by-side with a meaningful national citizenship in any final constitutional settlement.

European Citizenship: Beween Facts and Norms

Constellations, 1998

This article evaluates existing practices and institutions in the European Union in the light of the complex concept of citizenship. A prime example of such a normative political theoretical concept is "liberal democratic citizenship." The core ideas of this concept of citizenship, which consists of two constitutive elements, rights and identity, are the following. 2 When justifying one set of political arrangements relative to others "liberal democratic citizenship" ultimately makes reference to the interests of individuals, and does not stop at the interests of collective entities like cultures, churches, communities, languages, or nation-states. Liberal democratic citizenship is based on a minimal democratic criterion: the interests of each person are entitled to equal consideration. This individualist assumption is in line with the fact that we have to take into account the social and cultural pluralism of modern societies, and that from a liberal perspective, citizens should have the equal ability to choose their own conception of the good. The conception of citizenship offered is based upon principles of right, rather than the common good. The consequence of this argument is that there is a distinction to be made between how we understand ourselves as citizens within the political system and how we may regard ourselves in our personal affairs or within certain intermediate associations. Members of liberal democracies have, at least, a "double identity," resulting in several kinds of commitments and attachments. In their personal or private capacity, they are seen as holding a view about what a valuable life consists of, their non-institutional identity so to speak. But they have also public, or institutional identities: citizens have usually both political and nonpolitical aims and commitments. Another, related consequence of the idea of liberal democratic citizenship is that public identity is dissociated from identity based on "ethnos." What is significant about ethnicity is that it is negative: it is not (generally speaking) possible to join an ethnic group by an act of will. Individuals cannot choose their ethnicity. The reason why ethnicity cannot in itself be a basis for common citizenship is that there is no necessary connection between "descent," which is a

Citizenship, Nationhood and Multiculturalism: European Dreams and the American Dream

HyperCultura, 2012

For well-nigh two centuries Europe and the United States have been each other ́s 'significant Other'. They have each served as a reference culture to the other, leading to questions concerning the 'Europeanization' of America, or, with particular urgency in the 20th century, 'the Americanization of Europe'. Yet, whatever the cultural interchanges and encounters across the Atlantic, the United States and Europe, particularly in the days of the European Union, have separately shown inner strains and problems, to do with immigration, ethnicity, and multiculturalism. This paper explores parallels and divergences in the way both the U.S. and Europe cope with these issues.

European citizenship. With a nation-state, federal, or cosmopolitan twist?

The RECON Online Working Paper Series publishes pre-print manuscripts on democracy and the democratisation of the political order Europe. The series is interdisciplinary in character, but is especially aimed at political science, political theory, sociology, and law. It publishes work of theoretical, conceptual as well as of empirical character, and it also encourages submissions of policy-relevant analyses, including specific policy recommendations. The series' focus is on the study of democracy within the multilevel configuration that makes up the European Union.

European Citizenship: Towards a European Identity?

Law and Philosophy, 2001

Questions of political identity and citizenship, raised by the creation of the 'new Europe', pose new questions that political theorists need to consider. Reflection upon the circumstances of the new Europe could help them in their task of delineating conceptual structures and investigating the character of political argument. Does it make sense to use concepts as 'citizenship' and 'identity' beyond the borders of the nation-state? What does it mean when we speak about 'European Citizenship' and 'European Identity'? It is argued that the pluralism that has led theorists to offer a conception of citizenship based upon principles of right, rather than the common good, applies even more strongly at the level of the European political order. Developing a contractarian theory of federation, an account of the basis of a European citizenship will be offered in which federalism emerges out of an overlapping consensus of European citizens on the terms of their political association. 'European Citizenship' and 'European Identity' are discussed in the context of the socalled 'European Union', and not in the wider context of Europe 'as a whole', or for that matter on an even broader 'cosmopolitan' scale. However, the gist of the paper is that arguments for concepts of 'citizenship' and 'identity' that go beyond borders of nation-states and that are applied to the 'European Union', could have implications for an even wider application. Finally, and in conclusion, the (empirical) context will be elaborated in which the normative concept of shared liberal citizenship identity should be realized on a pannational, European level.

Citizenship: Historical Development of

'Citizenship: Historical Development of', in James Wright (ed), International Encyclopaedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2nd ed., Elsevier, forthcoming 2014

Historically, the distinctive core of citizenship has been the possession of the formal status of membership of a political and legal entity and having particular sorts of rights and obligations within it. This core understanding of citizenship goes back to classical times and coalesced around two broad understandings of citizenship stemming from ancient Greece and Imperial Rome respectively that later evolved into what came to be termed the ‘republican’ and ‘liberal’ accounts of citizenship. This entry first examines these two classic views, then looks at how they changed during the Renaissance and Reformation, and finally turns to the ways the two were to some extent brought together following the American and French revolutions within the liberal-democratic nation state.