Old Wine in New Bottles? Civic Republicanism and the Challenges of the Global Era

Abstract

Modern liberal democracies have been shaped by several currents of thought. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, it has become commonplace to underline the liberal half of the liberal democratic hybrid. The globalization of trade and financial transactions has superimposed upon political liberalism, with its emphasis on the discourse of rights, a neoliberal (i.e., market-oriented) economic dimension. However, the democratic half has also been the subject of much attention recently. In several countries, notably France and the United States, the democratic ideal has been reframed in explicitly republican terms. But civic republicanism is given a very prominent place in political and intellectual debates on the future of the nation-state taking place in several other countries, including Australia, Ireland, and Germany.² (The qualifier “civic” adds little to the meaning of republicanism but it distinguishes it from the ideology of today’s Republican party in the United States with which it has little in common.) Republicanism is a somewhat elusive notion but it can be defined rather succinctly in terms of a commitment to the common good (res publica) and to a particular way of reaching that goal, namely, self-government. Self-government implies equal access by all citizens to public institutions, and participation in deliberative politics. However, these simple words are subject to a wide variety of interpretations, some of which reflect concerns with the effects of globalization.³

In the German context, see, for example, Habermas (1998), Delbrück (1994) and hagedorn (2000).

For example, see Dagger (2001); Habermas (1998).