Re: Future of Europe (Tausch vs Derrida-Habermas)

 MY PREJUDICES are pro Taush and anti- Habermas & Derrida to begin with, 
and would not ordinarily trouble even to read Habermas.  I know him
poersonally and had only the worst experiences with him - as my boss -
and with Tuh only the best poersonally and otherwise. And as for
Derrida, he comes marked by PO-MO. nough said
agfrank
On
Wed, 18 Jun 2003, Gernot Koehler wrote:

> Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 14:08:42 +0200
> From: Gernot Koehler <gktbg1@tiscali.de>
> To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu
> Subject: 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.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 




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               ANDRE    GUNDER      FRANK

Senior Fellow                                      Residence
World History Center                    One Longfellow Place
Northeastern University                            Apt. 3411
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Tel: 617 - 373 4060                     Fax:    617-948 2316
Web-page:csf.colorado.edu/agfrank/     e-mail:franka@fiu.edu

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