Divided by Memory: Divergent Memory Cultures and the Debate about Democracy in the EU

Abstract

While the accession of the first post-communist states to the European Union (EU) in 2004 seemingly reunited the continent after 45 years of division, new political fault-lines soon emerged. I argue that the divergent understandings of nationalism, sovereignty and democracy in Europe at the start of the twentieth century – most often captured with the distinction between liberal and “illiberal” democracy – are rooted in collective remembrance. Whereas memory cultures organized around the defeat of National Socialism in 1945 emphasize overcoming nationalism, the protection of fundamental human rights and the constraining of popular sovereignty, those organized around communism and its fall in 1989, interpret nationalism as a source of liberation, the importance of majoritarian democracy and the inviolability of popular sovereignty. Given the role that differences over the interpretation of the recent past have played in justifying Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I conclude by arguing for the mutual recognition of these different narratives, rather than their assimilation within a meta-narrative.