1. Conceptual innovation on Dissensus
Work Package 1
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Conceptualising changes to EU policy instruments in the face of mounting dissensus
This is REDSPINEL’s overarching work package (WP), with all partner organisations involved in its concept and typology building effort. It offers a direct answer to the project’s first objective to foster conceptual innovation on dissensus.
The notion of dissensus
Across the EU and beyond, consensual support for liberal democracy and its different dimensions is being questioned by its opposite: an increasingly vocal dissensus surrounding its fundamental principles. The notion of dissensus can be considered as an essential feature of pluralist democratic regimes and yet it can also have a disruptive effect on democratic regimes when it challenges the very foundations of democratic institutions. Dissensus sees views pitted against each other, with one view essentially excluding the other. For this project, dissensus is meant to capture often reductive and absolute clashes between either polarised ideal of liberal democracy or different interpretations of its constitutive dimensions.
Core tasks
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Unpacking the shared defining features of the current strands of dissensus in Europe Leader: ULB
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Producing an original Typology of Dissensus in Europe based on its relative impact on EU instruments Leader: ULB
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Mapping out the Networks of the key actors of dissensus in Europe Leader: ULB
