Europeanisation, National Identities and Migration ... - europeanization

Democracy without demos 61
justice, they play this role with the goal of ensuring a fair balance of interests
and safeguarding competition and access to the market, yet not with the goal of
realising equal living conditions for everyone materially (Lenaerts 1992; Zuleeg
1995; Joerges 1996).
Between abstraction and individual
self-responsibility: the change in national legal
traditions
The logic of solidarity forms a link between market logic on the one hand and legal
logic and political logic on the other. All four types of logic are linked with each other
in a relationship of structural homology. The corresponding logic of solidarity
is based on cooperation, which is extended and branched toward the outside
and differentiated inside in the framework of the division of labour. The cooperation
of organic solidarity, which is caused by complementary interests, replaces
mechanical solidarity based on a communal spirit. Whilst mechanical solidarity
merely entails a direct connection of the individual members of society to the
collectivity, a wealth of loyalty duties have to be coordinated in the case of organic
solidarity. The collective consciousness is weakening and determines behaviour
less concretely. It is more abstract and forms but a frame which is filled by the
individuals and their decisions in accordance with the relative situation. The scope
for the unfolding of individual consciousness and individual identity is growing
to the same extent as the collective consciousness is becoming weaker and more
abstract. The abstraction of collective consciousness and the unfolding of individual
consciousness intensify each other. The ever growing number of associations
form the intermediary instances between these two poles. With Georg Simmel we
may add here that loyalty is not only constructed concentrically from the family to
the community to the nation and to Europe, but also exists side by side horizontally
in the form of business relationships, partnerships and membership of associations
so that the individual will gain and have to determine his/her personal identity at
the point of intersection of a myriad of social circles. He/she has to take up the
chance for autonomy with self-responsibility and mediate between the different
claims to loyalty. In this way, the process of European integration implies a
tremendous boost to individualisation (Simmel 1908/1992: 456–511).
Europe is not so much formed from individual nations, their collective solidarities
and their national cultures, but more from the strongly differentiated cooperation
of individuals which, in turn, is formed by an ever growing number of associations.
The individualisation of responsibilities pushes the uniform collective organisation
of social life through the nation-state into the background thus giving way to the
more varied and differentiated coordination of action within Europe. European
society evolves as a multi-level network society. In a society of this kind, individual,
self-responsible action can no longer be coordinated by direct political control and
substantive law, but merely by framework legislation and procedural law, which
must be formed variably in accordance with the situation. Correspondingly,
the focus of the coordination of action is transferred away from the state toward the