Open Access

Hauke Brunkhorst

• Für den Politikwissenschaftler Herfried Münkler ist Solidarität das "Stiefkind der Moralphilosophie, aber auch der Gesellschaftstheorie". Die Sache, so Münkler in dem von Beckert, Eckert, Kohli, Streeck vorzüglich edierten Tagungsband, sei offenbar "nicht sonderlich theoriefähig". So habe Kant, der Philosoph der Französischen Revolution, kurzerhand die Brüderlichkeit aus der Trias Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité entfernt und durch den schnöden Besitzindividualismus der Selbständigkeit substituiert. Genauso in der Theorie der Gesellschaft, in der die Prominenz des Solidaritätsbegriffs bei "Émile Durkheim (…) eine der wenigen Ausnahmen" darstelle. ...
• Solidarity is challenged by globalisation. This is reflected in the recent literature on the subject, in particular when it comes to extreme positions. At one end of the spectrum there is old-fashioned republicanism (Münkler), and at the other end advanced systems theory (Stichweh). Whereas republicanism is convincing in its observation of the weakening of the communitarian bonds of civil society and the normative failures of globalisation, systems theory is convincing in generalizing the concept of solidarity and adjusting it to the problem of the normative integration of the global society. The price that systems theory has to pay for this gain is a very general but at the same time very weak concept of solidarity which has lost any critical normative distance to existing society. On the other hand, the price old fashioned republicanism has to pay for its overburdening with value commitments is a total loss of explanatory force and complexity when it comes to the problems of global solidarity. Maybe a critical approach which is able to generalize the normative claims of solidarity and to combine it with the sociological insights of systems theory can reduce the price paid at both extremes.