There is a notorious typology of ‘conceptions of nationhood’, which opposes ‘ethnocultural’ conceptions to political or ‘civic’ conceptions of nationhood. Analytically, the typology is unsatisfactory, as are its normative and explanatory applications. A more multidimensional analysis of elements of national identity is proposed, which clarifies some possible meanings of ‘ethnic’, ‘cultural’ and ‘political’ in this context. These considerations are then applied to the case of German national identity.

Child poverty rates exceed those of elderly people in almost all Western nations. Moreover, it can be expected that the presently young generation (and yet unborn) will (far) less benefit from the welfare state than the elderly generation does and will continue to do. These inequalities between age groups and intergenerational inequities are, to a large extent, the result of the increasing numerical weight of elderly voters among the electorate to which political parties and governments respond. Giving voting rights to minor children, albeit vicariously exercised by parents, is one, repeatedly proposed approach to strengthening pro-family politics against the threat of gerontocratic politics (recently: Ringen 1997; van Parijs 1999). In the paper the pros and cons of this proposal are analyzed from two very different perspectives: (1) consequentialist arguments, i.e. those related to the desired/feared effects of enfranchising children on welfare state policy, intergenerational relations etc.; (2) deontological arguments, i.e. reasons whether or not an extension of voting rights ought to materialize.

This essay relates the normative discussion about social justice in political philosophy to empirical results from social policy analysis, thus linking two lines of discussions that have hitherto run mostly separately. The argument will be developed by answering four questions. The normative question: what regulative ideas of social justice does the debate about justice in political philosophy supply? The action-theoretical question: what criteria for judgement and political preferences can be found for a justice-oriented politics? The empirical question: how can the ‘three worlds of welfare capitalism’ be judged in the light of these hierarchically ordered criteria of justice? And finally the institutional question: which logic should underpin a reform of the welfare state, if this reform is to be both socially just and at the same time realistically achievable.

The historical and contemporary development of certain informal and formal articulations of Muslim social and political identities and forms of association in Muslim-majority and Arab societies has facilitated the emergence of a public sphere and limited the coercive power of state authority. This article suggests how a greater focus on religious ideas and forms of association can enhance the concept of the public sphere so that it better accounts for developments in these societies and in European societies themselves.

In a series of articles, A. Pizzorno has critically reviewed rational choice theory and developed an alternative to it. In certain academic environments, his work has become a clear referent of the sociological reaction against that paradigm. In this paper, we review and offer a critique of Pizzorno's contribution. Firstly, we reconstruct what we think to be the theoretical core of his position, as based on three main concepts: multiple identity, individuals as ‘strings of selves’ and ‘circles of recognition’ as mechanisms reducing identitary uncertainty. Secondly, we criticise this core as lacking philosophical rigour and as being underdeveloped. Thirdly, we analyse Pizzorno's theory as an alternative to the rational choice paradigm. Here we argue that social scientists – and Pizzorno is no exception – often make a double mistake when they oppose methodological individualism and rational choice models.

The relatively rare defences of politicians, responding to commonplace denounciations, form a neglected genre of political theorizing. Max Weber's famous ‘Politik als Beruf’ (1919) serves here as a point of departure for the analysis of the examples of Louis Barthou, F.C. Oliver, J.D.B. Miller and Jean-Paul Sartre. The rehabilitation signifies a conceptual change through rhetorical redescription, as suggested by Quentin Skinner.