An odd partnership: identity-based constitutional claims in modern democracy

An odd partnership: identity-based constitutional claims in modern democracy

As part of a collection of essays, this paper discusses constitutional claims proposed by national identities both at the state level and in international organizations, such as the European Union (EU). Specifically, I focus on the theoretical debates that refuse to consider national identity as a proxy for constitutional claims.
I argue in particular that a normative opposition to constitutional claims proposed by national identity (in Habermas and Offe) confuses an assessment of the reasons for the existence of a national identity community with a deliberative evaluation of their claims. The paper will contend that a modern constitutional system that aspires to create a set of communal alliances between strangers within states and within international organizations, such as the European Union, should seek to retrieve rationality, not to impose it.
The chapter is divided into two parts. The first part addresses the normative case against assessing identity-based constitution claims and argues that a great level of enrichment might be drawn from inserting normative arguments into the debate over the procedural requirements of modern constitutions. The second part looks at the interplay between the development of the modern republican tradition and national identity.

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Based on a workshop held on 19-21 July 2010 at the Australian National University.