Organized Civil Society and European Identity

Bc. Daniela Rodrigues Vieira

Master's thesis

Abstract:

The European identity is seen as an institution build up around the idea of the national, since individuals that feel European do so because they feel part of a European nation state. Therefore, European identity formation and/or consolidation are permeated of elements from national identitary constructs, as, for example, the project of a common motherland. To realize a shared political project, the individuals that are part from European identitary formation should feel belonging to a common system of political values. If these values are supposed to be democratic, as it is the case in Europe and its long pluralist tradition, such a political community should be able to include an active European civil society to deliver at the new governance mechanisms inputs created within the European individuals, what would consequently credit an important role for the civil movements inside European identity dynamics. This work is aimed, hence, on studying this relation between the organized civil society activities at European level and the construction and/or consolidation of a European identity.

Keywords

Organized Civil Society, European Identity, European Political Community.

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 12. 12. 2007

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 21. 1. 2008
• Supervisor: PhDr. Pavel Pšeja, Ph.D.
• Reader: prof. PhDr. Vít Hloušek, Ph.D.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Social Studies

Master programme / field:
Political Science / European Politics (Eng.)