Definition of the Nation

This lecture introduces students to some initial points about the major building blocks of politics: the state, nation, government and citizen.

From below, the state and political system of every state (country) is based on the citizens, who uphold the state. Without citizens, there would be no state and political system at all. Looked at from above, it is the state which, in its turn, rules the citizens. The legitimate regime, political system binds citizen and state together. In today’s world it is democracy.

Citizen - the Individual Member of the State

Natural rights - A universal right inherent in the nature of human beings, and not contingent on ethics, human constructs, laws or beliefs. In other words, natural rights are possessed by everyone irrespective of location or period.

Civil Rights - special freedoms which citizens of a country enjoy and which are protected by the law

Positive rights - A right specifically created by the government or society, for the benefit of its members.

Which came first, states or nations?

A nation is a population with a certain sense of itself, a cohesiveness, a shared history and culture and often (but not always) a common language. A state is a government structure, usually sovereign and powerful enough to enforce its orders.

Nation - a group of people who feel bound together by common racial, cultural or geographical ties.

Nation- a body of people who possess the consciousness of a common identity, giving them a distinctiveness from other peoples.

nation

1) patriotic feeling, principles, or efforts

2) an extreme form of this, esp. marked by a feeling of superiority over other countries

3) advocacy of political independence for a particular country: Palestinian nationalism

Nations (from Latin “nasci”, meaning to be born) are complex phenomena that are shaped by a collection of cultural, political and psychological factors. Culturally, a nation is a group of people bound together by a common language, religion, history and traditions, although nations exhibit various levels of cultural heterogeneity.

Politically, a nation is a group of people who regard themselves as a natural political community. Although this is classically expressed in the form of a desire to establish or maintain statehood, it can also take the from of civic consciousness.

Psychologically, a nation is a group of people distinguished by a shared loyalty or affection in the form of patriotism. However, such an attachment is not a necessary condition for membership of a nation; even those who lack national pride may still recognize that they “belong” to the nation.

=In the final analysis, the nation is a psycho-political construct. What sets a nation apart from any other group or collectivity is that its members regard themselves as a nation. What does it mean? A nation, in this sense perceives itself to be a distinctive political community. This is what distinguishes a nation from an ethnic group. ethnic group, unlike nation lacks collective political aspirations. These aspirations have traditionally taken the form of the quest for, or the desire to maintain political independence or statehood. On a more modest level, however they may consist of a desire to achieve a measure of autonomy, perhaps as part of a federation or confederation of states.

SUMMARY- nations are defined by a combination of cultural and political factors. Culturally, they are groups of people who are bound together by a common language, religion, history and traditions. Ultimately, however, nations themselves through the existence of a shared civic consciousness, classically, expressed as the desire to achieve or maintain statehood.

Cultural nationalism emphasizes the regeneration of the nation as a distinctive civilization on the basis of a belief in the nation as a unique, historical and organic whole. Political nationalism recognizes the nation as a discrete political community and is thus linked with ideas such as sovereignty and self-determination.

There are a number of contrasting manifestations of political nationalism: Liberal (based on a belief in a universal right to self-determination); Conservative (aims to achieve social and political unity), Expansionist (which is a vehicle for aggression and imperial conquest); Anti-colonial (associated with the struggle against for national liberation, social development)

Sovereignty, in its simplest sense, is the principle of absolute and unlimited power. We may make distinctions between legal and political sovereignty, and internal and external notions of sovereignty. Legal sovereignty refers to supreme legal authority = unchallengeable right to demand compliance, as defined by law. Political sovereignty, in contrast refers to unlimited political power = the ability to command obedience, which is typically ensured by a monopoly of coercive power.

In contrast to government, which is merely one of its parts, the STATE encompasses all public bodies and exercises impersonal authority on the basis of the assumption that it represents the permanent interests of society rather than the partisan sympathies of any group of politicians

What constitutes a nation? The elements of nationhood:

1) territory, 2) population, 3) common identity, 4) common history/ experience, 5) aspirations for the future

What constitutes a State? The elements of statehood:

1) territory, 2) population, 3) independence, 4) sovereign government

Unity of feeling, thought and culture are essential to a nation’s strength

'Togetherness' and 'separateness' are important parts of national consciousness. This consciousness is based upon common historical experiences, and other shared features such as geographical area and a common culture including a literature and a language. As with all feelings, that of belonging to a nation is bound to be relative. Different nations may be encompassed within the boundaries of states. For a century and a quarter there was no Poland it had been partitioned but the Polish nation remained. Sometimes the expression of nationhood may lead to statehood and, conversely, the foundation of a state based on nation is likely to strengthen national feeling.

Multinational state - states with populations diverse in language, culture, religion or identification.

Nationalism - the ideology or set of political beliefs held by nationalists, who are people who wish to emphasize the importance of their national identity, often in order to create an independent country for their nation to live in.

Nationalism – a conscious assertion of the NATION in terms differing from patriotism mere love of country. Nationalists have aims and programmes going beyond a belief that one should pay one's taxes or rally to the colours when the motherland is attacked. Yet nationalism takes different forms. Its intensity basically depends on the distance or separateness felt towards other national groupings. How much are they liked, tolerated or hated? (Extreme nationalism is often called 'chauvinism'.) Its form of expression depends on the historical, political and territorial context.

Historically nationalism scarcely existed among rural, pre-industrial societies. GELLNER argues convincingly that nationalism arose with public education, literacy, national conscription, bureaucracy, centralization and industrialism. It is a feature of 'modern times', though with improved communication it may be taken up by non-industrial ethnic groups. Hence the rise of nationalism in subject nations; first in nineteenth-century Europe and then in twentieth-century colonial empires. Colonial nationalism was a desire for emancipation from the imperial power and so post-colonial states often maintained the same borders as former colonial territories. Irredentist nationalism arises where an ethnic group that has achieved statehood wishes to incorporate other members of the group left outside its borders. Nations not given to nationalist expression may be capable of it when they feel threatened. Danish and British nationalists campaign against incorporation in a 'European super-state'. Internationalism stresses the common humanity of peoples and nationalism emphasizes their differences.

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 1051