European Democracy in Crisis ― Polities Under Challenge and Social Movements

In the past ten years, Europe has faced challenges that are unprecedented in its contemporary history. The economic and financial crisis revealed the weaknesses in the functioning of the Eurozone, notably the European Union's macro-economic structure. The neo-liberal measures intended to remedy it have caused, however, fierce reactions on both poles of the political spectrum. The reduction of Member States' sovereignty in fiscal and economic policy gave rise to right wing populism and Euro-skeptic political forces. Resisting the politics of austerity, the social movements across Europe have resorted occasionally to extra-institutional mechanisms and channels. Violence has indeed become Europe's new normal, but not only due to the rise of radical left-wing and, even more so, right-wing social movements. Hit by a series of terrorist attacks, European polities have descended into a latent (and in moments real) "state of nature." Eleven contributions to this volume are all concerned with the different facets of the European crisis and the possibilities of overcoming it. They address themselves to the philosophers, political scientists, and legal scholars interested in the European Union studies. (Series: Democracy and the Rule of Law, Vol. 7) [Subject: Constitutional Law, Politics, Human Rights Law]