Solidarity: From Civic Friendship To A Global Legal Community

by Hauke Brunkhorst, Jeffrey Flynn (Translator)

In Solidarity, Hauke Brunkhorst brings a powerful combination of theoretical perspectives to bear on the concept of "democratic solidarity," the bond among free and equal citizens. Drawing on the disciplines of history, political philosophy, and political sociology, Brunkhorst traces the historical development of the idea of universal, egalitarian citizenship and analyzes the prospects for democratic solidarity at the international level, within a global community under law. His historical account of the concept outlines its development out of, and its departure from, the less egalitarian notions of civic friendship in the Greco-Roman world and brotherliness in the Judeo-Christian tradition. He then analyzes the modernization of Western societies and the destruction of the older, hierarchical solidarities. The problems of exclusion that subsequently arose -- which stemmed from growing individualization in society (the "de-socialization of the individual") as well as from the exclusion of certain groups from the benefits of society -- could be solved only with democratic solidarity in the form of its "institutional embodiment," the democratic constitution. Finally, Brunkhorst examines the return of these exclusion problems as a result of economic globalization. Analyzing the possibilities for democratic self-governance at a global level, Brunkhorst finds in recent global protest movements the beginnings of a transnational civic solidarity. Brunkhorst's normative and sociological account, mediating between these two perspectives, demonstrates the necessity of keeping normative requirements systematically attuned with conditions of social reality.

Genres: Theory, Politics

262 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Shelly Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This text is Brunkhorst at his best and most interesting. He provides a thorough and excellent historical reconstruction of the idea of solidarity--what it meant in the ancient west and what it means to a global legal community.

By far the most interesting aspects of the text are toward the end: his exploration of the need for a global constitution in order to develop a global demos. Perhaps that is just because I'm sympathetic to this project. Overall, Brunkhorst relies on a negative dialectical method, but following Habermas, develops it via a theory of the public sphere and communicative action and competence. Disappointingly, he doesn't account for the multiplicity of interpretations of fundamentally contested concepts: finally arguing that the constitution serves as a point of consensus from which there is constant dissensus.

[Ft. Sheridan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stuff about the global public sphere and the history of political affect.