AUTHOR'S BIO
Jan-Werner Mueller
Jan-Werner Mueller teaches in the Politics Department at Princeton University. His most recent book is Contesting Democracy: Political Ideas in Twentieth-Century Europe.
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The Forgotten Twentieth-Century
Jan-Werner Mueller Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2011-11-29Ordinary Europeans long trusted elites with the business of democracy – and even seemed to prefer unelected elites. If they now want to modify the social contract, change ought to be based on a clear, historically grounded sense of which innovations European democracy might really need – and of whom Europeans really trust to hold power.... read Comments: 6 Recommended: 1 Read: 9565
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What Does Germany Want?
Jan-Werner Mueller Series: Europe at Home and Abroad 2011-11-04
In foreign-policy terms, post-war West Germany – and, later, reunified Germany – was utterly predictable: never against the West; always for more Europe. Now, the “Berlin Republic,” while more secure than ever about its identity, is seemingly at sea in its dealings with the world.... read Comments: 3 Recommended: 1 Read: 17483
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The Language of Global Protest
Jan-Werner Mueller Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2011-10-24Indignation has become a watchword for movements in France, Spain, and elsewhere. And language matters here: indignation, unlike outrage, suggests that some social actors – a government or elites in general – have violated shared norms or moral understandings.... read Comments: 2 Recommended: 1 Read: 14070
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The Ethics of Citizenship Tests
Jan-Werner Mueller Series: Human Rights 2010-04-23
Over the last decade, tests and exams for immigrants have proliferated – especially, but not only, in Europe - but so have controversies about what they may legitimately ask. Such tests can be empowering, but only if they communicate lessons about rights and democracy, that is, politics – not about lifestyles or the supposed core content of a “national culture.”... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 13812
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The Return of Religion?
Jan-Werner Mueller Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2009-06-29Calling the US religious and Europe secular is to invoke a well-worn contrast. Yet, in some respects, this clichéd opposition has actually been reversed recently: religion played virtually no role during the last American presidential elections, while in a range of different European countries major controversies about religion have flared up to become politically decisive.... read Comments: 2 Recommended: 0 Read: 16620
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From Christian Democracy to Muslim Democracy?
Jan-Werner Mueller Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2008-10-13Can Muslim political parties follow the democratizing path forged by European Christian Democracy? Although skeptics say no, because Islam lacks any analog to the centralized, hierarchical Catholic Church, the success of Christian Democracy in fact owes far more to political entrepreneurs and liberalizing Catholic intellectuals.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 22036
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Europe needs to make up its mind
Jan-Werner Mueller Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2007-03-20On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, political theorist Jan-Werner Müller assesses the three main visions of the European Union's future. With none commanding majority support, a pragmatic approach to the EU as a kind of “Commonwealth” is the most honest alternative.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 19354
