Post-democracy in the EU: Security vs. Civil Liberties?
Abstract
At the very beginning of the 21st century, Europe needs to address terrorist threats to a larger extent more than ever before. Both the EU member states and the EU institutions are adopting a whole range of measures to prevent and to fight terrorism. Nevertheless, some of these measures can endanger human rights and freedoms. Paradoxically, efforts to enhance security of state could therefore decrease the security of individuals. This article uses the concept of securitisation to analyse this process. The text tries, and attempts to answer the question as to what extent the securitisation of terrorism is taking place inside the EU nowadays. This is done by the analysis of some counter-terrorist measures and of their perception by the general public. In an extreme case, an intensive securitisation could change transform current liberal democracies into post-democracies.
Keywords
Terrorism, post-democracy, home internal security, individual security, the Copenhagen school, securitization, political discourse, France, Italy, Great Britain, European Union
Author Biography
Radka Druláková
Born in 1973, she is a graduate of the Faculty of International Relations at the University of Economics in Prague and the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University. She currently works as an associate professor at the Jan Masaryk Centre for International Studies at the Faculty of International Relations of the University of Economics. Her specialisation includes European integration in matters of justice and home affairs, analysis of foreign policy, and international relations. She is the author of the monograph Subsidiarity in the European Union – Legal Principle or Useful Symbol?, the principal investigator of the GA ČR grant "The International Context of Contemporary Czech Sanctions Policy" (P408/10/0191), and the author of numerous academic articles.