Grenzenlose Solidarität?

»Solidarity is the readiness to behave altruistically within a community« – by so defining »actual« solidarity, this article seeks to delimit it from »institutionalized« solidarity and commences by discussing how the two forms relate to each other. It then addresses contemporary threats to solidarity, the aim being to illustrate one of these potential threats by taking a look at some examples of legally institutionalised solidarity. It is the threat that an increasing universalisation of egalitarian principles could dissolve the boundaries of those reference groups that might be necessary to solidarity