Abstract

This interdisciplinary collection of essays by a constitutionalist and a political sociologist examines how fragmented societies can be held together by appropriate and effective constitutional arrangements providing for bonds of democratic citizenship. Exploring the political order dilemmas of capitalist democracies, the authors address moral and institutional prerequisites on which the deepening of European integration depends. The desirability of such deepening is currently contested, with the membership of some states (and their compliance with the spirit of the Union's treaties) at stake. The authors do not consider the ‘renationalisation' of Europe to be a feasible (and even less so a desirable) way out of Europe's current malaise. Yet whatever the way out, charting it calls not just for the vision and imagination of political elites but also for the intellectual efforts of social scientists. With this book, Preuß and Offe contribute to those efforts. Key Features:• original insights on the nature of the European crisis• analysis of how fragmented societies can be held together by appropriate constitutional arrangements • how state sovereignty and federal structures can be merged• account of the moral prerequisites and resources of democratic polities• dilemmas of political order under democratic capitalism
"What kind of unity can fragmented and ‘post-national’ societies achieve in and through the EU? These essays, by two prominent German scholars from the fields of democratic constitutionalism and political sociology, ask questions designed to elicit some answers. 'It is an exciting experience to follow these two brilliant minds on their intellectual itinerary towards path-breaking interpretations of the present fate of democracy in Europe."
Jürgen Habermas
Claus Offe, born 1940, was Professor of Political Science at Humboldt University, Berlin, where he held a chair in Political Sociology and Social Policy. His previous positions include professorships at the Universities of Bielefeld and Bremen, where he served as director of the Center of Social Policy Research. He has held research fellowships and visiting professorships in the US, Canada, Australia, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Italy, and the Netherlands. Since 2006 he has been Professor of Political Science at Hertie School of Governance, Berlin. His fields of research are democratic theory, transition studies, EU integration, and welfare state and labour market studies. He has published numerous articles and book chapters in these fields, a selection of which is reprinted as Herausforderungen der Demokratie. Zur Integrations- und Leistungsfähigkeit politischer Institutionen (2003). Recent book publications in English include Varieties of Transition (1996), Modernity and the State: East and West(1996), Institutional Design in Post-Communist Societies (1998, with J. Elster and U.K. Preuß), Reflections on America. Tocqueville, Weber, und Adorno in the United States (2005) and Europe Entrapped (2014).


Ulrich K. Preuß is Professor emeritus of Law and Politics at Freie Universität Berlin and at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. In 1989-90, he co-authored the draft of the constitution as a participant of the Round Table of the German Democratic Republic. He has taught at, among others, Princeton University, New School University, the University of Chicago and Haifa University. He served as a judge at the Staatsgerichtshof (State Constitutional Court) in the Land Bremen [state of Bremen] from 1992 unitil 2011. His book publications include, among others, Constitutional Revolution. The Link Between Constitutionalism and Progress, 1995; Institutional Design in Post-Communist Societies. Rebuilding the Ship at Sea (co-authored with Jon Elster and Claus Offe), 1998; Krieg, Verbrechen, Blasphemie. Zum Wandel bewaffneter Gewalt [War, Crime, and Blasphemy. On the changing character of armed conflict]. 2nd ed. 2003; Bedingungen globaler Gerechtigkeit, 2010.