Navigating the Murky Waters of Nationalism: Why Europeans Have to Consider the American Experience

Abstract

The article discusses the following question: has the EU something to learn from the US experience with nationalism? The answer is positive, because of a configuration of specific ecological factors that make the US experience with nationalism analytically relevant for Europeans. The US represents a case of development of a union of states on the bases of a predominant paradigm of constitutional nationalism, although this paradigm was regularly challenged by the rival one of cultural nationalism. On the contrary, the EU, lacking a formal constitutional document as the basis of its very political existence, has been unable so far to develop a constitutional glue for its internal divisions. If that is plausible, then the EU should not rely only on the constitutional traditions of its member states, but rather should pursue also the road towards a European constitution as basic law. The processes of European integration will continue to be unstable if not ordered by the public sharing of a common constitutional discourse formalized by a basic law.