Since Russia's attack on Ukraine in February 2022, Europe has been confronted with the end of a peace order that was negotiated by the so-called victorious powers after 1945 and which sought to establish a fragile order based on borders, military security and reconstruction aid, which we call Western democracy. But what if we understood democracy no longer as a form of government, but as the ability of local communities to govern themselves? What new forms of responsibility, sovereignty and self-determination would arise from a serious commitment to federalism? And what political understanding of society do we need in the 21st century for peace, the most fragile and precious commodity we have?
Using historical examples from Somaliland, the indigenous peoples of North America and the Zionist founding of the State of Israel, but also using current cases such as Kurdish self-government in Rojava, cultural sociologist Thomas Wagner traces the possibilities of federalist concepts as shared sovereignty and shows how they innovatively combine the self-organisation of ethnic groups with the principles of modern, constitutional democracies.
Non-fiction
Thomas Wagner, born in Rheinberg in 1967, is a cultural sociologist and author of numerous books. Recently published by Matthes & Seitz Berlin: Desertion into Freedom (2022).
