Overview

Welcome to the website of ‘Voices for the Res Publica: The Common Good in Europe’. Funded by the Ford Foundation and housed within JPR, this three year project examines the loss of a sense of the common good in European democracies, the consequent erosion of feelings of shared belonging and the emergence of new types of tribalism. This site includes reports and commissioned papers produced between 2006 and 2009.

Promoting the Common Good in Europe: A statement

We are a group of independent voices from six European countries, who believe there is a pressing need to restore a sense of the common good and shared belonging in our pluralist democracies in Europe. We believe that the upsurge of xenophobia, racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia and intolerance in recent years has caused the weakening of the post-World War II ideal of reconciliation, integration and open borders.

We come from varied national, ethnic, religious and professional backgrounds. There are among us Christians, Jews, Muslims and people of no religion; judges, lawyers, academics, writers, journalists, political and social activists living in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. What brings us together is the desire to restore a shared sense of the ‘common good’ beyond our own variety of identities and cultures. We represent no political party but, after three years of frank discussions in six European countries, we feel compelled to express our concerns at this crucial time in Europe’s history. We have chosen the Latin term ‘res publica’ to convey the notion of the common good in Europe and the pressing need to renew the parameters of democratic life by respecting identities while also transcending them.

We believe it is time to overcome the divisions that have dominated public discourse on issues of identity and belonging, minority and majority rights, values and culture, status and class, religious freedom and secularism. We have found that by focusing our discussions on the common good, we have been able to create a context in which diverse perspectives can come together.

We share a concern that major issues facing our societies are being increasingly deferred to the realm of law. We believe there is an imbalance in the relationship between the legislature, government and civil society. We call for initiatives that would bring a closer involvement of civil society in the realm of government as a way of re–invigorating public life. We are concerned about the large gap between the civil and the civic realm (that of formal, professionalized politics).

We believe that serious European renewal can only take place by restoring the centrality of political action and representation. At the local, national, and European levels, the concept of a common good must become the guiding spirit for our societies so that our diverse populations will feel respected and represented.

Introduction

Introduction to the project by Dr Diana Pinto, Project Director and Senior Research Fellow, JPR
Manifesto Here is the text of the original Manifesto of this project, dated January 2007
Summarizing the issues Jonathan Boyd, Acting Director, JPR

Round table reports by Dr Diana Pinto

UK round table [April 2007]
Polish round table [June 2007]
Swedish round table [September 2007]
French round table [November 2007]
German round table [February 2008]
Dutch round table [June 2008]
European round table [November 2008]
European round table [July 2009]

Commissioned papers

National identity by Marc-Olivier Padis, Christoph Böhr, Auke van der Berg, Joanna Tokarska-Bakir, Catherine Fieschi
The law by Claire Thépaut, Seyda D Emek, Lydia Heuveling van Beek, Qaisar Mahmood, The author has requested to remain anonymous
The status of minorities by Jean-Marc Dreyfus, Sergey Lagodinsky, Crista Huisman, Ireneusz Krzeminski, Qaisar Mahmood, Rob Berkeley
Religion by Hasret Karacuban, Famile Arslan, Zuzanna Radzik, Maria Södling, Jonathan Magonet
The state and civil society by Wojtek Kalinowski, Martin Schaad, Farid Tabarki, Konstanty Gebert, Göran Rosenberg, Tony Breslin

List of round table participants