Example social and political philosophy dissertation topic 3:

European federalism: A movement in keeping with Kant’s model of perpetual peace?

In expanding his theory of perpetual peace and the groupings of nations, Kant commented in his three definitive articles in the essay ‘Perpetual peace: A philosophical sketch’ (1795) that, ‘the civil constitution of every state should be republican’, ‘the law of nations shall be founded on a federation of free states’, and ‘the law of world citizenship shall be limited to conditions of universal hospitality’. He also stated that the executive should be separate from the legislature. Given the present legislative and executive structure of the EU, the creation of a European presidency, and the nature of European citizenship, this dissertation seeks to evaluate the extent to which Kant’s three articles can be seen to be enshrined within the constitutional arrangements of the developing EU federal state.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Eleftheriades, P. (2007). ‘The idea of a European constitution’, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Vol. 27(1), pp. 1-21.
• Kagan, R. (2002). ‘Power and weakness: Why the United States and Europe see the world differently’, Policy Review, Vol. 113, pp. 3-29.
• Přibáň, J. (2009). ‘The juridification of European identity, its limitations and the search of EU democratic politics’, Constellations, Vol. 16, pp. 44-58.