European Integration's Identity Crisis: Causes and Legal-Constitutional Perspectives Between Populism, Politics and Power

Authors

  • Alessandra Silveira Universidade do Minho
  • Pedro Froufe Universidade do Minho

Keywords:

European integration, identity crises, populism, democracy, citizenship of rights

Abstract

The European integration is facing today a populist pressure which adds to the nationalist drive. Despite such movements behold a short-sighted and materially anti-democratic cosmovision, they are coming to power precisely through the instruments of formal democracy. They are phenomena potentially threatening to democracy, nevertheless generated in democracy, based on the fundamental rights that define it -- such as freedom of association and of speech. Having the European integration emerged as an anti-fascist response to the collapse of the rule of law in the period between the two World Wars, the article questions which the causes are for this state of play and how to envisage the future of the European Union.

Author Biographies

Alessandra Silveira, Universidade do Minho

Direito; Departamento de Ciências Jurídicas Públicas

Pedro Froufe, Universidade do Minho

Direito. Departamento de Ciências Jurídicas Públicas

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Published

2018-08-14

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 2 (2018): Ten Years of DILEMAS

Section

Articles

License

Upon submitting a text, the authors retain copyright and grant DILEMAS - Revista de Estudos de Conflito e Controle Social the right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons License type attribution BY (CC-BY), which permits sharing of the work with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal.