Open AccessTHE POLITICAL FRONTIERS OF EUROPE AS A CIVIL SOCIETY: J. HABERMAS’ REJECTION OF A EUROPEAN VOLK AND M. FOUCAULT'S BALANCE OF POWER AS PROTECTIONS AGAINST EUROPEAN NATION‐STATE
Author(s) -
M.L.J. Karskens
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
creativity studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2345-0487
pISSN - 2345-0479
DOI - 10.3846/2029-0187.2008.1.186-198
Subject(s) - european union , geopolitics , sovereignty , politics , civil society , political science , power (physics) , state (computer science) , balance (ability) , law , political economy , sociology , economics , international trade , medicine , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , computer science , physical medicine and rehabilitation
With the help of J. Habermas and M. Foucault, it is argued that the idea of Europe is, first of all, the ideal of an unlimited civil society. Human rights, the rule of law and the legal European institutions are its political backbone. The European Union itself is somehow the realization of this ideal conception of a borderless, unlimited society. It is argued that the European Union in this respect is a heterotopia within the bordered and sovereign member states themselves. Seen from the outside, however, and in the world of geopolitics, Europe is a political power with closed borders and excluding frontiers. In this respect the European Union is a continuation of the old European Balance of Power.