Democracy and Multi-Culturalism in Post-Enlargement Europe.

The Eastern enlargement of the European Union has de facto led to an increase in politico-cultural diversity within the European space, both in terms of different cultural forms of life and with regard to moral perceptions of the good life. Political and cultural diversity have played a strongly conflictual role in the post-communist countries while the conditionality-based accession process seems to have attenuated tensions, not least through minority protection and the respect for collective rights for minorities in the post-communist countries. At the same time, though, one might argue that EU attention has been relatively marginal and has focussed primarily on formal rights, without much regard for issues such as recognition and participation of non-national cultural groups in national and European politics. Similarly, it might be argued that the European Union has primarily strengthened national states in post-communist Europe while the rights and participation of sub-national cultural groups have been disregarded. The paper will address the relatively one-sided, formal-legal 'mode of incorporation' of the accession countries that became evident in the enlargement policy of the EU. Subsequently, the argument for a more inclusive and diversity-sensitive approach towards the new member states will be made, and will be partially identified with the process of European constitutionalization. This argument will be underpinned by a short discussion of the theorisation of forms of post-national European order, in particular Habermas's 'constitutional patriotism'. The paper will conclude by proposing a more diversity-sensitive approach to a postnational Europe in which recognition and intercultural dialogue are central. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]