Future Democracy?

Proceeding from postmodern theories of diff erence (Luhman, Derrida, Castells), the author concludes that the issue of the European future and democracy cannot be understood through any kind of project of higher unity, but as a process of political action which cannot be tied with a perspective of a predetermined structure of Europe. The author fi nds the origin of such an assessment in the oppositeness of two incommensurate pluralisms: a historically produced one, manifested in specifi c national or religious properties, and the one determined by a democratic procedure, which does not proceed from specifi c properties of members of a community, but from a principle of legal equality. It is because of the mentioned diff erence that democracy, law, politics or religion are simply autopoietic systems, which do not integrate into higher entities, but operate as functionally limited entities, which include and exclude from the system diff erent segments of environment. If there is not such a higher end which Europe should pursue, what is the goal that should be pursued by Europe and European democracy? The answer, according to the author, lies in the deconstruction of European visions, illusions and projects, a critical potential of theories of diff erence not being in their practical application, but in their diff erent understanding of the state of aff airs