Modern states – and novel multinational polities such as the European Union – have to contend with greater degrees, and more complex forms, of diversity. What elements keep complex, «post-national», political entities together? What are the ties that bind people together in a world where they cannot rely on the safety of established national identifications (if they ever could)? This collection of essays by leading political scientists, philosophers and legal academics from Canada and Europe provides a transatlantic dialogue on the ways in which complex states (such as Canada) and non-states (the EU) may broach the modes of difference and diversity that confront them. Authors engage in insightful «diagnoses» of contemporary forms and modes of diversity, as well as critical appraisals of a number of normative responses meant to answer these challenges. These responses range from «reasonable accommodation» and multinationalism to cosmopolitanism. They include the recognition of «post-national», «multinational» or «deterritorialised» democracy and constitutional patriotism, as well as plural or «denationalised» citizenship.

The Editors: John Erik Fossum (Ph.D., University of British Columbia, 1990) is Professor of Political Science at ARENA Centre for European Studies at the University of Oslo, Norway. Johanne Poirier (Ph.D., Cambridge, 2003) is Professor of Law at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) where she co-directs the Center for Public Law. Paul Magnette (Ph.D., ULB, 1999) is Professor of Political Theory at the ULB, and a former director of the Institute of European Studies. He is currently Belgium’s federal Minister of the Environment.

Contents: John Erik Fossum/Johanne Poirier: The Ties that Bind ‘Post-national’ Polities Together. An Introduction – Bhikhu Parekh: Multicultural Society and Convergence of Identities – Melissa S. Williams: The Politics of Fear and the Decline of Multiculturalism – F. Leslie Seidle: Testing the Limits of Minority Accommodation in Quebec. The Bouchard-Taylor Commission – Rainer Bauböck: Stakeholder Citizenship and Democratic Participation in Migration Contexts – Paul L.A.H. Chartrand: Citizenship Rights and Aboriginal Rights in Canada. From ‘Citizens Plus’ to ‘Citizens Plural’ – Philippe Van Parijs: Grab a Territory! English Dominance Equal Linguistic Dignity in the European Union of the 21st Century – Geneviève Nootens : Ces liens qui nous unissent. Légitimité de démocratie dans les sociétés plurinationales – Alain-G. Gagnon : Le phénomène émergeant de la multination. Tensions entre philosophie politique et dans le contexte canadien – Jean-Marc Ferry : Du politique au-delà des nations – Francisco Colom González: An Uncertain . Political Belonging in Post-national Europe – Sophie Heine : National postnational ou communautarisme cosmopolitisme ? Une confrontation des différentes approches théoriques sur l’identité – Daniel Weinstock: Frayed Federation. Challenges to Canadian Unity in the Wake of Trudeau’s Failed Nation-Building Project – Jean-François Gaudreault-DesBiens: The Fetishism of Formal Law and the Fate of Constitutional Patriotism in Communities of Comfort. A Canadian Perspective – Keith G. Banting : Le contre-exemple canadien. Multiculturalisme, reconnaissance et redistribution. Inhaltsverzeichnis