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In May 2012, around 700 mostly young people either in or
on their way to Frankfurt on the Main were placed under
detention. They couldn't be accused of committing criminal
offences – merely of intending to take part in non-authorised
gatherings.
The city of Frankfurt and the government of the state of Hesse
reacted to the protests planned for the "Blockupy Frankfurt
European Days of Action" by effectively imposing a state of
emergency. The protest forumwas aimed against the austerity
policy and the power of the banks. More than one hundred
organizations supported the movement, including the youth
groups of the trade unions, peace organizations, environ-
mental organizations, unemployed action groups, anarchist
and socialist associations and student groups. Reflecting this
diverse assortment of groups, the planned protest actions
ranged from blockades to workshops, concerts and protest
raves. But things never got that far. Massive state intervention
curtailed the fundamental rights of thewould-be participants.
To prevent blockades in the banking district and potential
rioting by certain autonomous groups all the events were
banned – even lectures, readings and discussions. The entran-
ces to the DGB building were blocked, the university campus
sealed off and citizens banned from loitering at countless
sites in the inner city.
In other words, a massive reaction to a protest movement
that began in New York as the Occupy Wall Street protest and
quickly gained international support. Popular protests like this
are growing in number – and the emergence of new social
movements is also a response to a profound legitimisation
The Indignant
Stuttgart 21, Blockupy and thousands of complaints against the EU bailout fund: the number of popular protests and
new social movements is constantly growing. Social scientist Andreas Eis sees this as a response to a crisis that very few
researchers are really talking about: a crisis in the legitimisation of parliamentary democracy.
crisis of parliamentary democracy.
This legitimisation crisis has so far barely been discussed in
political education. Few social scientists have underscored
its importance as a learning opportunity. In many studies
of governance and policy research the citizens' diminishing
opportunities for political participation remain largely unex-
posed – state intervention against the Blockupy protests is
just one example of this.
Yet many people protest not just against the effects of the
financial crisis, against the austerity packages and bailout
funds; they also want a revision of the democratic decision-
making process. Because they are aware that there have been
tangible changes in statehood: transnational governance by
panels of experts that are beyond the control of parliaments
and public opinion is jeopardising traditional procedures
for the democratic formulation of objectives. Young people
are being addressed less as agents of emancipation than as
"
entrepreneurs of themselves" (Ulrich Bröckling). They are
being called on to take the responsibility for their career
mobility and social security into their own hands. At the
same time the results of research into political culture, for
example that carried out by Brigitte Geißel, show that for
many citizens the prerequisites for political involvement are
very limited – the chances for participation are increasingly
unequally distributed.
Commitment politics rather than the critical development of
democracy: if education researchers address the legitimisation
crisis at all, they tend to reduce political participation to social
commitment. Programs for service learning and citizenship
Zur Person
Personal Details
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Eis ist seit 2011 Hochschullehrer für „Didaktik
des politischen Unterrichts und der politischen Bildung“ an der
Universität Oldenburg. Er studierte Sozialkunde und Philosophie
in Jena, Rennes (Frankreich) und East-Lansing (USA). Als Wissen-
schaftlicher Mitarbeiter war er an den Universitäten Augsburg
und Jena tätig, wo er promovierte. 2009 bis 2011 übernahm Eis die
Vertretungsprofessor für Didaktik der Sozialwissenschaften an der
Universität Frankfurt/Main.
Junior Professor Dr. Andreas Eis has lectured on the "didactics of
political education" at the University of Oldenburg since 2011. He
studied social sciences and philosophy in Jena, Rennes (France) and
East Lansing (USA). He was a research fellow at the Universities of
Augsburg and Jena, where he obtained his doctoral degree. From
2009
to 2011 Eis was visiting professor for the didactics of social
sciences at the Goethe University Frankfurt.
