The Global Parliament of Mayors (GPM), together with METREX, is pleased to present “In Defence of Democracy … EUROPE NEEDS AN URBAN RESET”, an essay by Prof. Dr. Eric Corijn, Director of Policy and Research at the GPM and Professor at the Free University of Brussels.
The publication emphasizes the importance of continually reaffirming the role of urban and metropolitan democracy, particularly in the context of ongoing European integration. As metropolitan regions increasingly serve as the spaces where urban and rural dynamics converge, it becomes vital to consider how democratic participation can be preserved and strengthened within these complex territorial settings.
This essay contributes to the growing dialogue on democratic governance at the metropolitan level and aims to provide valuable input into the broader debate on sustaining and enhancing citizen engagement across Europe’s diverse regions.
Abstract
The argument developed in this essay proposes a critical review of the history of the making of Europe as the creator of a European world system and the idea of the national state.That global frame determined the European unification project as a market driven intergovernmental collaboration maintaining politics and culture as an exclusive national domain.
Geopolitics, new conservative nationalism and the authoritarian temptation put the European unification project at risk.
This peculiar history of the building of the European Union overshadowed different structural elements omitted in the narrative. Renaissance and the Enlightenment were basically products of the post medieval development of relatively autonomous cities,city states and an urban bourgeoisie that eventually took over leadership from the nobility and the clergy. Urbanity produced the ideas of freedom, equality and citizenship. They were later “nationalized” in the making of the nation states, relegating cities to “localities” in the country. Nationality repressed urbanity. Nationality installed the story of a common history, producing tradition and identity, legitimizing representative democracy within national borders. Sameness and community were identified within very diverse national territories.
Most of humanity lives now in cities. Cities are caught in the post-industrial transition. Their hinterland is networked in the space of flows. Their population becomes multiethnic, multicultural and multireligious. National socializing models become outdated and dysfunctional. Rethinking Europe as networks of cities and metropolitan regions allows to deepen the idea of “Europeanness” as a way of living together respecting difference and diversity. An urban democracy.