Identities and Institutions in a Changing Europe

Abstract

The panel includes issues of integration into new societies, the role of international institutions in identity formation and political parties in charge. Papers will focus on the question of what it means to integrate an individual into society, connecting it to concepts of multiculturalism, unity-in-diversity, and politicization of integration. In addition, the panel highlights the relevance of identity politics, in which the international institutions of the liberal order are subject to pressure. Here, papers in the panel move beyond economics and power to capture the issue of identity among ordinary citizens, as well as elites, in particular with regard to the interplay between local and national identities and identity promoted by international institutions. Moreover, the panel discusses how far political parties undergo fundamental change, also due to globalization. The change seems to be closely related not only to the shrinking partisanship, decline of the mass-membership political parties but also to loosening of traditional ties between political parties and their voters, which also reflects the role of political identity. The relaxing of traditional ties and their potential re-establishment with other political parties or a failure to re-establish such ties favours voters’ ad hoc choices. For that reason, high volatility has become one of the most characteristics of recent political party dynamics.

Title	Details
International Institutions and Domestic Politics: Rethinking the Institutions–Identity Nexus	View Paper Details
Assimilation, Multiculturalism or Unity-In-Diversity? Normative Conceptions of Integration and Their Determinants Among Majority and Minority Citizens in Germany	View Paper Details
Vicious Circle of Instability: Factors of Voters´ Volatility in a Changing Political Environment	View Paper Details