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Political Philosophy and the European UnionPolitical Philosophy and the European Union Academic Year 2011-2012, 2nd semester, Thursdays 6-9 pm, 5 ECTS Helder DE SCHUTTER and Philippe VAN PARIJS helder.deschutter@hiw.kuleuven.be Political philosophy has traditionally focused on the nation-state, in particular on how its collective decisions should be taken to qualify as democratic, and on how its institutions should be designed to count as just. More recently, political philosophy has resolutely expanded its focus: it started asking, for example, whether global governance should be a macroscopic replica of domestic government, and whether global justice is to be conceived as inter-national justice or as social justice writ large. But what about this intermediate entity of an unprecedented nature that is now called the European Union? What can be said about it from a normative point of view? What are the principles that should determine how much power its institutions are to be given, how these should be designed, and what the scope and content of their policies should be? After a general overview of the subject characterized in this way, the course will focus every year on a specific aspect of it. This year it will deal with the normative foundations of federalism. (When) is a federal regime more just than its two alternatives - secession of the federal entities, and overarching unitarism without sub-state political autonomy? Are language groups or national-cultural entities entitled to forms of self-government? Are federalism and democracy compatible? What rules should govern the solidarity between citizens of federal countries? Is EU federalism a desirable idea? What can constitute the federal ‘ties that bind’? The discussion of these questions will be largely based on a reader of the most important writings on the political philosophy of federalism, and on lectures by the teachers and guest speakers. We aim for a lively and creative seminar. To enable this, students are expected to participate actively, by giving presentations and taking part in discussions. They will have to write a paper (about 5000 words), which will be the main basis for evaluation. In this paper, they must work out and defend a normative position in a (clearly demarcated) discussion. This position can be a critique or defence of either (i) a solution to a specific problem, or (ii) a particular theoretical stance. PROGRAMME 16/02/11 - General Introduction + Presentation by Philippe VAN PARIJS: ‘Crash Course in Contemporary Political Philosophy and the European Union’ 23/02/11 - Presentations by Min REUCHAMPS (Université de Liège) and Helder DE SCHUTTER on the political philosophy of federalism 01/03/11 - Domestic federalism: why federalism? Presentation by Helder DE SCHUTTER 08/03/11 - PART I: Domestic federalism: the case of NEPAL; PART II. Supranational federalism: the EU. Presentation by Andreas FOLLESDAL (Professor of Philosophy, Oslo). 15/03/11 – Federal history: an overview. Presentation by Helder DE SCHUTTER 22/03/11 – Federal history: the non-territorial model of Karl Renner and Otto Bauer and its contemporary relevance. Discussion by Philippe VAN PARIJS and Helder DE SCHUTTER 29/03/11 – Fiscal federalism (domestic and supranational). Presentation by André DECOSTER (KUleuven, public economics), Edoardo TRAVERSA (UCLouvain, tax law) and Philippe VAN PARIJS. 19/04/11 - Supranational Federalism: the EU. 26/04/11 – IV. Global Federalism. 03/05/11 - Concluding session.
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30/01/2012
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