Suchergebnisse

1. Introduction: Negotiating Language Regimes -- Dario Castiglione -- 2. Theoretical Foundations of European Language Debates -- Alan Patten -- 3. Language Policy of a Civic Nation-State: Constitutional Patriotism and Minority Language Rights -- Omid A Payrow Shabani -- 4. Intercultural Recognition and Linguistic Diversity in Europe -- Peter A Kraus -- 5. What is a Language? The Difficulties Inherent in Language Rights -- Sue Wright -- 6. Linguistic Diversity and the Paradox of Rights Discourse -- Reetta Toivanen -- 7. Minority Languages, Law and Politics: Tracing EC Action -- Niamh Nic Shuibhne -- 8. The Political Discourse on Multilingualism in the European Union -- Miquel Strubell -- 9. English as Lingua Franca: A Challenge to the Doctrine of Multilingualism -- Chris Longman -- 10. Europe's Linguistic Challenge -- Philippe Van Parijs -- 11. The Babel of Europe? Networks and Communicative Spaces -- Philip Schlesinger

AbstractThis article suggests that there are many ways of characterizing the transformations of contemporary democracy, but that particularly Peter Mair's analysis of the 'hollowing out' of democracy suggests that we are witnessing a process of democratic disempowerment, with citizens becoming disaffected and political elites more insulated. A particular terrain of such a process is that of political representation. This article focuses on the conceptual and institutional transformations of the 'standard version' of political representation and whether the shift from a more formal and centralised system, based on authorization and control, to more informal, diffuse and trust‐based processes of representation may still meet the normative requirements of democratic politics.

This article offers a brief summary of Albert Weale's (2013) book on democratic justice and the social contract and discusses in more detail its central argument about the democratic social contract, which rests on mutual advantage, deliberative rationality and rough bargaining equality. The article contextualises Weale's argument, showing how it emerged from his own scepticism towards previous social contract theories. It explores the distinctiveness of Weale's own social contract theory, discussing its main aspects: its logic, its rationality and its legitimacy. The piece concludes by offering two brief critical arguments about issues of method (the 'empirical' approach) and substance (the philosophical anthropology of the social contract).