Future of Europe (Tausch vs Derrida-Habermas)

Future of Europe (Tausch vs Derrida-Habermas)

The views on the future of Europe expressed by Tausch, on the one hand, and
Derrida and Habermas, on the other, are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
However, the emphases are markedly different. Tausch, as an empirical
world-system sociologist, looks at socio-economic trends and finds that
Europe - rather than becoming a hegemonial leader, is stagnating and on the
path of becoming a banana republic (my expression). In contrast, Derrida and
Habermas, as philosophers, dream  (nothing wrong with dreaming per se) of a
virtuous Europe and its potential good influence in the world along
liberal-pacifist lines. Both Tausch and Derrida-Habermas see dangers and
difficulties in the intra-European relationship between West (old EU) and
East (new members of EU), with the old West of Europe being in danger of
bullying and/or exploiting the East.

HIGHLIGHTS:

(1) Tausch writes:

"Hypothesis 14: . . . Europe, with its huge state sector, its high tariff
walls against foreign competition, and its large scale penetration by
foreign capital, its slow process of technological innovation, is destined
to become the 'Argentina' of the 21st Century. Also its small future
population base and rigid migration regime do not qualify it for a rapid
21st Century economic growth. There is a great risk that the European West
will treat the newly democratic East as a reservoir of surplus value and
exploitation."

(2)Derrida and Habermas write [my translation]:

(a) "There must be no separatism within the framework of the future European
constitution. Leading does not mean excluding. The vanguard core Europe must
not crystallize into a Small-Europe; it must be the locomotive, as many
times before."

(b) "Europe must use its weight at the international level and within the
framework of the UN, in order to counterbalance the hegemonial unilateralism
of the United States."

(c) for "a cosmopolitan order based on international law"

(d) "The success story of the European Union has reinforced the conviction
on the part of Europeans that the domestication of the exercise of state
power requires also the mutual limitation of sovereign spheres of action at
the global level."


REFERENCES

(1) Tausch, Arno, "The European Union. Global Challenge or Global
Governance? 14 World Systems Hypotheses and Two Scenarios on the future of
the Union." In: Gernot Kohler and Emilio Jose Chaves (Editors)
"Globalization: Critical Perspectives" Hauppauge, New York: Nova Science
Publishers, 2003. Other contributions: Samir Amin, Immanuel Wallerstein,
Christopher K. Chase Dunn, Kimmo Kiljunen, Patrick Bond, Petros Haritatos,
Andre Gunder Frank, Ernesto Gantman, Robert J. S. Ross, Sadik Unay, Hardy
Hanappi, Edeltraud Hanappi-Egger, Emilio J. Chaves, Gernot Kohler. ISBN
1-59033-346-2. See: www.amazon.com

(2) Derrida, Jaques,  and J. Habermas, "After the war: The Rebirth of
 Europe" in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany)_, 31may03 -
the url for the German text in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is
http://www.faz.net/s/Rub117C535CDF414415BB243B181B8B60AE/Doc~ECBE3F8FCE2D049
AE808A3C8DBD3B2763~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html

Respectfully submitted with a disclaimer
(this short posting cannot do justice to the complex texts
by the cited authors, but has the purpose of highlighting their positions)

Gernot Köhler, Ph.D.