EU disintegration as cultural insurrection of the anti-Enlightenment tradition

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article highlights certain aspects of EU member state culture on the disintegration of the Union from a constructivist perspective. It ascertains that the present disintegration is a result of a long-time existing Europe-wide anti-Enlightenment tradition described by Zeev Sternhell. Its patterns were always part of EU law as well as domestic policy-making; only its strength and relevance were different. As a result, EU policies existed like materials in a dynamic equilibrium: Antagonistic processes like integration and disintegration were melding in EU cooperation, at the same time, in the same system. Without proper circumstances, however, the system can contain more and more patterns which reverse cooperation and cause tensions. On the other hand, the anti-Enlightenment tradition does not necessarily negate the cooperation, but has the potential to change domestic governance and, through this, the principles on which European nations build their cooperation.