Democracy posits the universality of the equality principle: a
community of citizens is governed by the principle of the formal
equality of all individuals, whatever their real social, cultural,
or other inequalities. Democratization, on the other hand, is
motivated by the ambition of ensuring the real equality of
citizens, and not simply their formal equality. The dynamics of
democracy are thus insured by the development of a welfare state
that increasingly intervenes in order to satisfy the social and
economic needs of individuals. Especially focused on France, yet
informed by the experiences of other European countries, this book
examines the dilemmas of the search for equality in society and
politics.
Democratization guarantees the rights of salaried workers and
employees, the rights to material survival and housing, as well as
health care, education, and culture. Today, however, as Schnapper
observes, its action has become paradoxical. As the fruit of a
praiseworthy concern to ensure the universality of rights, what
Schnapper identifies as a "Providence State" now aims, by means of
positive discrimination and other specific promotion policies, to
defend the particular rights of certain categories of individuals.
The action of the Providence State thus nourishes an aspiration:
that the identities of historical collectivities gathered within
the same national society be publicly recognized, and that these
have rights. Equity thus supplants equality; and multiculturalism,
universality. Such is the ordeal currently experienced by Western
democracies, which are faced with the increasingly "providential"
nature of their societies. Indeed, the author asks, how can a
united political Europe be constructed on the ideals and
institutions of citizenship, when European nations are becoming
providential democracies?
Providential Democracy offers a searching and timely critique of
democratization that will be of interest to sociologists, political
scientists, and historians.
General
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