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=The European Union=

Constitutional patriotism is especially relevant in the European Union because there is no single shared history or culture. It is not rooted in the of pride in a culture, race or ethnicity, but rather, in a political order. Creating a unified European identity is a difficult task, but constitutional patriotism has offered a liberal alternative to other forms of nationalism. It allows people to remain attached to a unique culture, potentially to their individual countries, but still share a common patriotic identity with other Europeans. It also encourages Europeans to distance themselves from ethnic public self-definitions, ethnic definitions of citizenship and ethnic-priority immigration.

Constitutional patriotism holds political order accountable because people have the choice to be constitutionally patriotic. People will only feel pride in a political order that they feel warrants it. The diversity of states in the European Union also makes a constitutional bond an appealing style of unity. Similarly, in the context of a history of wars, persecutions, genocide, and ethnic cleansing, states may choose to gather behind a constitution at the supranatural level.

Today, constitutional patriotism plays a role in distancing the current European Union from its past totalitarian experiences with Nazism and Stalinism. Countries seem to be converging on political ideals, civic expectations and policy tools that fall under the umbrella of constitutional patriotism. However, the European Union has yet to fully acknowledge and embrace constitutional patriotism as an identity. European skeptics note institutional features, such as a lack of focus on meaningful electoral politics, as reasons for why it has not fully been embraced. Many see their own national governments as their only hope of electoral accountability.

=Theoretical Orgins= (to be combined with Carina's section)

Habermas
Constitutional patriotism emerged with the idea that the nationalistic collective identity is no longer feasible in a globalized modern world. Habermas grounds his theory in the idea that "the symbolic unity of the person that is produced and maintained through self-identification depends... on belonging to the symbolic reality of a group, on the possibility of localizing oneself in the world of this group. A group identity that transcends the life histories of individuals is thus a precondition of the identity of the individual." Habermas centers his ideas on plausibility in a postnational Germany, and argues for Germans to "move away from the notion of ethnically homogeneous nation-states." He argues that the European nation-state was successful because "it made possible a new mode of legitimation based on a new, more abstract form of social integration." Rather than a consensus on just values, Habermas believes the intricacies of modern societies must rely on "a consensus on the procedure for the legitimate enactment of laws and the legitimate exercise of power.” While Sternberger originated the idea of constitutional patriotism, Habermas played a key role in developing it, contextualizing it and spreading it to English-speaking countries.

Müller
Jan-Werner Müller's 2007 publication of Constitutional Patriotism affirmed his place as one of the leading, modern political philosophers of constitutional patriotism. Building on its history an original theories, Müller advocates for constitutional patriotism as a unification option, especially in diverse, liberal democracies. His ideas center on political attachment, democratic legitimacy and citizenship in a context that rejects nationalism, and addresses multicultural states, such as the European Union. He provides some of the only extensive analysis on Sternberger and Habermas' original theories, and like Habermas, has developed and improved accessibility of the idea to the English-speaking world. Critics have argued that Habermas' theory focuses too much on a "domestic German agenda," or is "too specifically German." Müller's ideas, and writings on the European Union as a whole serve to discuss these criticisms, and place constitutional patriotism in a broader context. Müller is currently a Professor of Politics at Princeton University.