Connecting Rights into Projects

The original meaning of res publica (public affair) refers to the notion that republicanism is also a spatially-oriented theory. Thus, “the public” in republicanism is not the mass of people, but rather the space where people meet each other. Today, however, this aspect of civic republican tradition is weakened by various factors which weaken the idea of citizenship and narrow the public sphere. One of these factors is also the individualistic discourse which sees rights as trumps against majority and the state and which has a strong anti-utopian element skeptical of wider collective projects. The thesis of this paper is that when we start to understand civic republicanism in spatial terms, rather than in terms of “the people”, it would resist individualist’s fears more easily while still emphasizing the strong public sphere and rejecting increasing privatization. Here, the potential shift would be from the concept of Fraternity into the concept of Neighbourhood. In a space of republican neighbourhood we can then connect our rights with broader collective forward-looking projects. For example, our political rights could be connected to particular projects of participatory or deliberative democracy, our social rights could be compatible with the idea of universal basic income, or our right to a healthy environment could be developed into a broader project of environmental citizenship. Thus, we would be able to create spatial solidarities on various levels from local to global which, however, could be still compatible with existing notions of patriotism and citizenship.