Solidarity and History. Institutions and Social Concepts of Solidarity in 19th Century Western Europe

Abstract

There are some terms which have become such a part of our political language that we can no longer imagine it without them. One such term is “solidarity”. Yet when a new term denotes the social need to express linguistically an important change in the sociopolitical situation, i.e. to mark it as new and to render it open to discussion, then that term’s emergence, as well as its adoption in various ways by various countries with comparable cultural situations, refers to differences in the constellations of power and perceptions governing the discussion. Three significant examples help to illustrate this point in detail below.