Sanja Ivic

The purpose of this inquiry is rethinking the concept of European identity within the framework of the Declaration on European Identity and the Charter of European Identity. It will be argued that those documents employ modernist notion of centered, rational, stable, autonomous and unified self. However, this idea of the self leads to exclusion and essentialism. In this way, European identity cannot embrace the multiculturalism of European societies. Thus, it should be replaced by a more flexible, dynamic and shifting concept of identity.

A number of authors in the past two decades emphasised that the problem of “democratic deficit“ in the European Union could be solved by application of the principles of deliberative democracy. However, the notion of “deliberation“ haven’t become the part of the EU policy and discourse until 2005. The problem of “democratic deficit“ is officially recognised by European Commission in 2005, when the Commission supported and funded a number of initiatives for the promotion of active citizenship and deliberative democracy. This paper will analyse European Commission’s Plan D for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate. It will explore whether this plan led to deliberation and more inclusive citizenship.

The second generation model of deliberation can serve as an effective tool for institutionalization and establishing the ethics of care. Ethics of care and second generation deliberative democracy both recognize otherness and diversity and create the “policy of difference” and more inclusive, more substantive notion of citizenship. They imply the idea of autonomy of the will that is based on diversity and uniqueness of human experience. The first generation model of deliberation founded on reason that implies sameness and universal citizenship denies otherness and difference. Consequently, it cannot represent the foundation for the care ethics. The same can be argued for the third generation model of deliberation that emphasizes self-interest, because it is contrary to the fundamental principles of deliberative democracy itself.

Ova knjiga predstavlja doprinos istraživanjima šire primene post­moderne teorije, koja se na prostorima jugoistočne Evrope još uvek prvenstveno vezuje za književnost, slikarstvo i umetnost uopšte. Primena postmodernističkih ideja na pravne i političke studije još uvek nije dovoljno ispitana, iako je postmoderna misao nastala pre više od šezdeset godina. Postmoderno se ili ignoriše ili pogrešno tumači, a u okviru pravnih i političkih studija, čija je tema priroda Evropske unije (EU) kao političke zajednice, često se tvrdi da je EU postmoderna, nadnacionalna politička zajednica, pri čemu se sam pojam „postmodernog“ dalje ne objašnjava, već se olako upotrebljava kao označitelj za sve što je novo i savremeno. S druge strane, „nadnacionalno” se obično predstavlja kao postmoderan fenomen. Međutim, postmoderno je, u okviru pravne i političke teorije, širi pojam od nadnacionalnog – na primer, nadnacionalno građanstvo ne mora biti i postmoderno…nadnacionalno se još uvek može zasnivati na različitim binarnim opozicijama (kao što su nacionalno/nadnacionalno, javno/privatno, pravo/dobro itd.), dok je polazište ideje postmodernizma upravo prevazilaženje ovih dualizama. Svrha ovog istraživanja je analiza pojma „građanstva Evropske unije” u okviru politike Evropske unije. Evropsko građanstvo se ne odnosi samo na građane kao državljane posebnih država članica koje zajedno formiraju Evropsku uniju, već i na stanovnike šire Evrope. Drugim rečima, „evropsko građanstvo” je širi pojam od „građanstva Evropske unije”, budući da obuhvata širu Evropu, a ne samo Evropsku uniju. Evropa je kontinent, dakle, statičan geografski entitet, za razliku od Evropske unije, koja predstavlja dinamičan politički projekat, te predstavlja proces koji se konstantno preosmišljava.

The concept of EU citizenship reflects EU politics of (fixed) identity, which guarantees rights only to the homogeneous groups (and individuals as representatives of these groups). Hence, it leaves room for marginalizing, othering, excluding and other forms of discrimination, by creating binary oppositions: we/they, citizen/alien, EU/non-EU and so forth. EU citizenship is based on the modernist ethics of priority of right over the good. It is created to promote European idea, so it has only instrumental value. On the other hand, the politics of affinity leads to the substantive EU citizenship founded on multiple identities. The politics of affinity requires a new ethics which will lead to transformation of the main concepts of EU legal discourse.

This paper will explore the visa liberalisation process and its implications affecting Western Balkan countries from the perspective of postmodern politics. It will be argued that the idea of citizenship which is deduced from the entire idea of visa liberalisation process for Western Balkan countries rests on a modernist notion of citizenship which is based on the idea of stable and fixed identity. This idea of citizenship is contradictory to the concept of European citizenship as a postnational, and, thus, postmodern concept based on multiple and shifting identities. Postmodern European politics should overcome universalist assertions of modernist Europe, which do not acknowledge the “non‐European world“.

Ricoeur’s narrative theory can be applied to scientific theories. Scientific theories as well as narrative plots represent a “synthesis of heterogeneous” based on productive imagination. On the other hand, narrative plots can be perceived as an answer to the “why?” questions as well as scientific explanations. In this paper it will be argued that an analogy between narrative and scientific paradigms can be made. In the 18th and 19th centuries, both narrative and scientific paradigms aspired to represent a mimesis of reality. However, in the 20th century, those realist aspirations were rejected or supplemented with an idea of fragmented and mind-dependent reality. This point of view opened the question of the role of non-existent (and non-referential concepts) in science. In literature, novels without traditional plots arose.

Poststructuralist approach can offer a useful tool for refiguration of some basic concepts employed in European legal discourse. However, this approach is mostly used in gender studies, and its potential is mostly neglected in European studies. In this article, the Udine Declaration will be analyzed from the poststructuralist perspective. It will be shown that this Declaration does not represent a move toward greater freedom and broader notion of identity, because it employs essentialist concepts.

In this article I will present the main ideas of those thinkers who argue that natural sciences are receptive to a hermeneutical method of understanding. I will examine to what degree understanding used as a method in natural sciences differs from understanding used as a method in humanities and point out the universality of hermeneutical experience. At the beginning, I will state the authors who set sharp borders between the methods used in natural sciences and methods used in humanities. They regard hermeneutics exclusively as a method used in social sciences that is not capable of reaching the cognitive objectivity innate to natural sciences. However, by means of several examples from contemporary philosophy of science it can be proved that this classification is not valid.

In this paper I’m going to argue that both, Spinoza and Kant, construct the argument “for the impossibility of self-destruction” and examine how the concept of suicide relates to the concept of humanity in both philosophers. I will argue that Kant’s and Spinoza’s argument for the impossibility of self-destruction follows from the “external cause” premise and not from “the same subject” premise. I will try to show that Spinoza and Kant argue that suicide is irrational – it is never done rationally or freely.

Rawls does not advocate liberal imperialism in his work. He claims that peoples have a moral nature and that they cannot be treated instrumentally. Subsequently, he argues that decent hierarchical societies should be tolerated. Rawls emphasizes that it is the peoples ( not individuals ) who are moral actors. The Law of Peoples results from a second original position in which the parties are representatives of peoples whose basic institutions satisfy the principles of justice. Therefore, Rawls rejects cosmopolitanism and the conception of global justice which is founded on the idea of original position in which parties are representatives of persons who hold different social positions

The modern liberal idea of citizenship is constructed by a fixed notion of identity which gains meaning through a number of binary oppositions, such as we/ they, citizen/ foreigner, self/ other and so forth. Defined by these binaries, where the first term is perceived as dominant because it is considered to be derived from reason, the fixed notion of identity inevitably produces exclusion and marginalization. Importantly, the postmodern concept of citizenship stems from a critique of these essentialist and universalist conceptions of identity. Exploring European identity and European citizenship from a philosophical perspective, this book reveals the discursive construction of these two concepts whilst at the same time attempting to define them as either modernist or postmodernist categories. Dr. Ivic takes a hermeneutic approach in her interpretation of European citizenship and identity through a close reading of European treaties and other official documents. Through her detailed analysis, Dr. Ivic is able to present the reader with well-informed and concrete examples of modern and postmodern concepts of identity within Europe. Moreover, this book explores the impact that contemporary issues such as Brexit, the migration crisis in Europe, and the proliferation of nationalist discourses, have on European citizenship and identity.

This book uses a theoretical and empirical approach to explore the philosophies of European citizenship and European identity. The author applies a focused analytical framework to argue that European identity and citizenship should be perceived as postmodern categories which are multi-layered, dynamic and fluid. The book offers a detailed review of political and legal studies which do not comprehend or explain postmodernist concepts of citizenship and identity. In the theoretical part of the book various philosophical models of citizenship and identity (from antiquity to the postmodern era) are portrayed, and the author's own theory and analytical framework is developed. The empirical part of the book discusses a variety of case studies illustrating how European Union policies apply to this framework.

This inquiry investigates the concept of European values and cultural, philosophical, legal and political presuppositions on which the idea of European values is based. There are two approaches to the idea of European values. The first one is substantive approach. The substantive approach defines European values as based on the European heritage. This conception of European values is fixed. Another understanding of European values is represented by legal/political approach. Legal and political definition of European values includes: human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Most authors consider that only from this second level, from legal and political definition, general features of European values can be achieved, that is, universal rules of the game. This paper shows how these two different approaches can be integrated, relying on John Rawls's idea of overlapping consensus. It should be emphasized that the question of European values and European identity is still a topic of debate. There are different definitions and interpretations of these concepts, regardless of the legal definitions within the framework of European declarations and treaties. European identity is a polyphonic category, which cannot be founded on monolithic definitions. Otherwise, the entire continent would fall under the rule of one homogeneous culture.

This inquiry analyzes the concept of ‘European public sphere’ within the European public discourse. In particular, it explores the European Communication Strategy for creating active European citizenship and European public sphere. The European Commission’s Plan D for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate failed, because it employed homogeneous and static concepts of public sphere and European values. In this way it reduced deliberation to a mere debate. The European Year of Citizens was not sufficiently successful for the same reason. It involved citizens debated about EU rights, but it did not produce deliberation. The purpose of this inquiry is to show the dialectical relation between ideas of European values, European identity and European public sphere. This paper emphasizes performative nature of European public sphere, European identity and European values. These concepts may be perceived as grand narratives which aim at producing universal truths.Article first published online: 16 OCT 2017

This inquiry examines various philosophical conceptions of identity and the clash between different identity narratives in the history of philosophy. The main goal of this paper is to show how the European philosophical idea of identity was developed. This paper explores the emergence of European philosophical identity narratives, which have shaped the ideas of justice, truth and community in Europe. It studies the foundational identity narratives that underlie the contested idea of a shared European heritage in law and culture, such as the ideas of equality, tolerance, rule of law, pluralism and the rejection of totalitarianism, and their relevance for current debates on philosophical ideas of self and identity. Identity is an open process. It is a dynamic hermeneutic category, which is constantly reinterpreted and reinvented. There are various philosophical traditions of Cogito – some of them perceive it as foundation of all knowledge and some of them perceive it as a mere illusion. In all these philosophical perspectives, the self is understood only through interpretation. The self is constituted as a narrative, as a text. Understanding oneself means understanding oneself in front of a text. The self is reinterpreted all over again only in light of narratives provided by culture. The task of hermeneutics is not only understanding of a subject, but also rethinking the subject.

Human rights do not represent an absolute truth. Otherwise, they would represent ideology, which is contradictory to the basic idea of human rights itself. Consequently, there is a need for redefinition of the main presuppositions of modern conception of human rights represented in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This paper argues that Rawls's conception of human rights is significant for the refiguration of human rights. It represents the path towards postmodern idea of human rights and the recognition of difference.Os direitos humanos não representam uma verdade absoluta. Caso contrário, eles representariam a ideologia, o que é contraditório em relação à própria idéia básica de direitos humanos. Consequentemente, há uma necessidade de redefinição dos pressupostos principais da moderna concepção de direitos humanos representada na Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos. Esse artigo argumenta que a concepção de Rawls de direitos humanos é importante para a reconfiguração dos direitos humanos. Ela representa o caminho para a idéia pós-moderna de direitos humanos e para o reconhecimento da diferença

In the following lines the symbolic oppression founded on binary hierarchies that exist inside the framework of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Basic Freedoms will be presented. In those binary oppositions opposed terms are not equally valued. One of these terms is dominant, while the other is subordinated and mostly defined only as the first term’s other. This symbolic oppression creates various forms of discrimination. This paper argues that this problem can be resolved by deliberative democracy. Effective deliberation leads to more informed public sphere which is capable to embrace otherness and diversity.