Peter A. Kraus

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Peter A. Kraus (born October 9, 1960 in Barcelona , Spain ) is a German-Catalan political scientist who mainly deals with topics in political sociology , comparative research on democracy and modern theory of democracy. He is currently working at the University of Augsburg as Professor of Political Science and Head of the Canada Institute.

In addition, he deals with cultural pluralism , nationalism , minority politics and the problem of European integration and European identity.

Life

Kraus studied sociology , political science and Romance studies at the University of Augsburg and Bielefeld University . In 1988 he resigned his diploma in sociology at Bielefeld University, and a doctorate then 1994 in Political Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main.

From 1988 to 1990 Kraus worked as a research assistant in the field of political science at the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University. After working in Bielefeld, he worked from 1990 to 1995 as a research assistant at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Mannheim .

In 1990/91 and 1992/93 he took a leave of absence from his service in order to complete longer research stays at the renowned Universitat Autònoma in Barcelona and at the equally recognized Instituto de Estudios Sociales Avanzados in Madrid as a scholarship holder of the Volkswagenwerk Foundation . Since 1995 he has been a university assistant at the Institute for Social Sciences at the Humboldt University in Berlin .

From January to June 1999 he taught as Theodor Heuss Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York City .

During his academic year 2000/01, he worked as a John F. Kennedy Fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University , Cambridge , Ma. In 2003 he completed his habilitation at the Humboldt University in Berlin, where in July 2003 he became a private lecturer in political science at the Institute for Social Sciences.

As a visiting scholar, he enriched the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin with his experience in the field of social research , department "Democracy: Structures, Performance Profile and Challenges" between 2003/2004 .

From June 2006 Kraus was a professor at the Swedish School of Social Science at the University of Helsinki.

Kraus has been Professor of Political Science and Head of the Canada Institute at the University of Augsburg since May 2012.

Important works

"United in diversity" - this is the official motto of the European Union . In this context his publication “European Public and Language Policy” is often mentioned.

The aims of the European Union include a. balanced economic growth , a competitive social market economy and better environmental quality , a Europe that combats the exclusion and discrimination of minorities and promotes justice and social protection.

Europe, shaken in the past by many wars and crises, as a heterogeneous substance of up to now 25 members, larger and smaller national states, with its administrative and economic peculiarities is to be brought on a path of homogenization.

A binding system of standards and values ​​for all its members is to be created and thus to bring about a liberalization of trade. This is a gnarly undertaking, but a goal worth striving for nonetheless.

The European Union is characterized by cultural and linguistic diversity. So far, the Union seems to have only been able to cope with the challenge of finding an appropriate form of institutional handling of cultural diversity.

According to Claus Offe , Kraus' work “is based on the fact that - in the context of European integration and the European language regime - he deals theoretically and empirically, but also with a practical intention, with the problem that the difference between the individual languages ​​and the The traditions and ways of life stored in them cannot be "privatized". "

It is still important to create a public communication space in which the articulation of diversity is possible in order to link a politics of recognition with the option of a converging multilingualism.

Another of his works is the book “Nationalism and Democracy. Politics in the Spanish State of Autonomous Communities "

In this monograph, Kraus reports, as the title suggests, about the Spanish state and its autonomous communities. Kraus deals with "the interrelationships between the" structural "problems of a multinational society, the dynamics of democratic change and the institutionalization of the Estado autonomico"

It deals with the period between 1975 and 1992. At the beginning of this period there was a transformation from an authoritarian system to a social and democratic constitutional state with the form of a parliamentary monarchy .

Building on this, a change took place from the former homogeneous unitary state to a new “semi-federal, in any case strongly decentralized and ethno-territorial complex structure”.

Kraus goes “broadly into the contribution of more recent“ transition theories ”to the investigation of processes of regime transformation”.

In a further step, Kraus designs a heuristic scheme based on the “transition theorem” explained above.

After these theoretical considerations, he deals with the nationality conflicts during the democratization process.

At the end of that process, a democratic constitution emerges, which thus marks the end of the transformation. This is also the “real beginning of the institutionalization ” of the autonomous state.

After considering the “ macro perspective”, he continues to deal with the “meso effects of the autonomy process, ie with the social and political consequences of decentralization on the level of the Comuidades Autonomas”.

Dr. During his career, Kraus composed an interesting collection of publications on a wide variety of topics. In addition to the above mentioned, other writings on the areas of democratic theory and cultural pluralism should be mentioned. Above all, it is the European Union and its ethno-cultural and linguistic diversity that are primarily the subject of his research.

Further publications on his research areas can be found in numerous specialist journals. Kraus is also a co-author of the specialist books selected below.

Works

  • Nationalism and democracy. Politics in the Spanish State of Autonomous Communities , Wiesbaden 1996, Deutscher Universitäts Verlag
German-language fonts
  • Elements of a theory of post-authoritarian democratization processes in a southern European context , in: Politische Vierteljahresschrift, 31, 1990, 191–213
  • Nationalism and democracy. Politics in the Spanish State of Autonomous Communities , Wiesbaden: Deutscher Universitäts Verlag, 1996
  • with Bernhard Ebbinghaus: The variable geometry of subsidiarity: on the problem of territorial and functional integration in Europe in: T. König, E. Rieger u. H. Schmitt (Ed.): European Institutional Policy, Frankfurt a. M .: Campus, 1997, 335-357
  • with Wolfgang Merkel: The consolidation of democracy after Franco , in: WL Bernecker u. K. Dirscherl (Ed.): Spain today, politics, economy, culture, Frankfurt a. M .: Vervuert, 1998, 37-62
  • Cultural pluralism and political integration: The language issue in the European Union in: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft , 4/1998, 443–458
  • W. Merkel u. E. Sandschneider (Ed.): Associations and representation of interests in new democracies in: Systemwechsel 4. The role of associations in the transformation process, Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1999, 23–44
  • with W. Merkel (ed.): Nationalism and civil society in transformation processes in: Systemwechsel 5. Civil society and democratic transformation, Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 2000, 71–88
  • From Westphalia to Kosmopolis? The problem of cultural identity in European politics in: Berliner Journal für Soziologie, 10, 2, 2000, 203-218
  • with H. Behr u. S. Schmidt (Ed.): Diversity without unity? Autonomous state and multinational democracy in Spain in: Multicultural democracies in comparison, Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 2001
  • Limits of political communication and language issues in the European Union in: Berliner Debatte Initial 5/2002, 5–14, 2002
  • United in diversity? European identity in a dilemma in: Blätter für German and international politics, 6/04, 722–732, 2004
  • European public and language policy. Integration through recognition , Frankfurt am Main, Campus ("Theory and Society" series), 2004
non-German language fonts
  • Problemas de democratización en los Estados plurinacionales , in: Revista Internacional de Filosofía Política (Madrid), No. 8, 1996, 59-80
  • Political Unity and Linguistic Diversity in Europe in: Archives Européennes de Sociologie / European Journal of Sociology, XLI, 1, 2000, 138–163
  • Between Mill and Hallstein. Some Challenges to Intercultural Solidarity in the EU in: P. Van Parijs (ed.): Cultural Diversity versus Economic Solidarity. Is there a tension? How must it be resolved ?, Brussels: Deboeck Université, "Francqui Scientific Library", 303-318, 2004
  • Cultural Pluralism and European Polity-Building: Neither Westphalia nor Cosmopolis in: Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol 41, No 4, 665–686, 2003

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kraus, Peter A.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish political scientist
DATE OF BIRTH October 9, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Barcelona , Spain