Parkhomenko, R.N. Citizenship and national identity as understood by J. Habermas

Abstract: The article concerns the ideas of one of the renowned modern German philosophers J. Habermas (born in 1929) regarding the definitions of citizenship and national identity .J. Habermas was always interested in the issues of cultural influence of the national identity upon the development of specific states. J. Habermas is trying to analyze how the globalization processes influence the social living factors, such as legal security, sovereignty of a citizen, collective identity in a society, and democratic legitimacy of the nation states. As a result of analyzing the ideas of J. Habermas, the author draws a conclusion that J. Habermas unilaterally supports the universalist understanding of liberal principles. In his opinion the identify of a political community is based on the “legal principles rooted in a political culture, rater than special ethnic and cultural form of life in general”. The political practice of a democratic states does not allow for the existence of any privileged cultural form of life in a state.

Keywords: