Sovereignty, elements of Nationhood, Statehood.

LECTURE NOTES

Course: INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL SCIENCE

2 CREDITS, FRIDAY/ SATURDAY

WEEK 4

Sovereignty, elements of Nationhood, Statehood.

This lecture introduces students to some initial points about such concepts as sovereignty, elements of Nationhood, Statehood.

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.

Sovereignty - supremacy or ultimate political power.

STATE:

The supreme controlling force within society is the state

State is a political association (unit) that has ultimate sovereignty– that is ultimate responsibility for the conduct of its affairs. Max Weber defined state an organization having `the monopoly of the legitimate use of force in a given territorial area` … means of ‘legitimate violence’. Kazakhstan is a state, the USA is state, but Almaty is not state, K’Cell is not state.

In other words, State is a political association establishes sovereign jurisdiction within defined territorial borders, and exercises authority through a set of permanent institutions. These institutions are those that are recognizably ‘public’ in that they are responsible for the collective organization of communal life, and are funded at the public expense.

Debate over the nature of state power and the role of the state is one of the central themes in political science.

State - a country which is independent of all others; the permanent political authority within an independent country.

Shortly, nation has historical, cultural as well as political aspects. The state has territorial and political aspects, as well as aspect of coercive power.

Unitary state - one in which sovereignty is located in one place, concentrated at the ‘centre’ of the state.

Federal state - one in which the constitution lays down that sovereignty is shared between the central authority and local and regional authorities.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1809