MACMILLAN Migration and the Crisis of Democracy in Contemporary Europe (Europe in Transition: The NYU European Studies Series)

This innovative and thought-provoking study puts forth a compelling analysis of the constitutive nexus at the heart of the European refugee conundrum. It maps and historically contextualises some of the distinctive challenges that pervasive ethnic and cultural pluralism present to real politics as on the level of political theorizing. By systematically integrating hitherto insufficiently linked research perspectives in a novel way, it lays open a number of paradoxical constellations and regressive tendencies in contemporary European democracy. It thereby redirects attention to the ways in which liberal thought and liberal democratic institutions shape, interact with, and may even provide justification for illiberal and exclusionary practices. This book thus makes an important contribution to the analysis of post-migrant realities in Europe and the ways in which they are defined by imperial legacies, punitive migration regimes, the culturalization of mainstream politics, and the discursive construction of a European Other. Review “At a time of palpable anxiety in Europe about borders, cultural sovereignties, and the defendable integrity of a supposedly superior political tradition, Christoph Michael's acutely drawn and impressively grounded treatment of the migration question provides admirably surefooted analytical guidance. The challenging consequences of unfamiliar cultural intrusions for the self-confidence and future continuity of a liberal democratic outlook have rarely been so persuasively laid out.” ―Geoff Eley, Karl Pohrt Distinguished Professor of Contemporary History, University of Michigan, USA “Michael provides an engaged and engaging analysis of the political contestation of migration in contemporary Europe that will be essential reading for anyone interested in these questions. Michael shows how the politicisation of migration actually represents much wider debates about both the idiom and the practice of liberal democracy in Europe. By arguing that the backlash against multiculturalism in Europe represents a wider resistance to diversity, Michael goes to the heart of debates about the nation state and its future in Europe by arguing that this is also a backlash against the emancipatory core of liberal democracy itself.”  ―Andrew Geddes, Chair in Migration Studies, European University Institute, Italy “Christoph Michael’s book confronts its readers with a daring und unsettling hypothesis: In his theoretically sophisticated and thought-provoking study, he suggests that liberal political ideas and key institutions of contemporary liberal democracies are complicit in fueling the resurgence of nationalist-populist actors and practices of racial exclusion. Exploring the link between migration and democracy, Michael focuses on how communities are defined and who legitimately belongs. His key finding is provocative: He lays bare the failure of liberal democracies to live up to their universalistic promise and to overcome the legacy of colonialism and exclusionary nationalism. With his skillful investigation into the cultural underpinning of Europe’s liberal democracies, Michael’s book offers an important and politically timely contribution to the debates on the renewed political prominence of nativist sentiments and racist ideas.” ―Oliver Schmidtke, Jean Monnet Chair in European History and Politics, Departments of Political Science and History, and Director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, Canada From the Back Cover This innovative and thought-provoking study puts forth a compelling analysis of the constitutive nexus at the heart of the European refugee conundrum. It seeks to map and historically contextualize some of the distinctive challenges that pervasive ethnic and cultural pluralism present to real politics as on the level of political theorizing. By systematically integrating hitherto insufficiently linked research perspect