NATIONHOOD AND
NATION-STATES
Alesya Maslyak
2nd year student
Contents
Sociology, nation-states and the international system
• Classical sociology and social change
• Universalism and nationalism
Citizenship: entitlements and obligations Political theory and interstate
relations
• The realist perspective explained
• The realist perspective assessed
• Putting 'society' back into national and global politics Society and
international relations
• Historical sociology
The feminist reassessment
• Women and the state, Women and nationalism
• Women, violence and contemporary warfare
Does globalization mean the decline of the nation-state?
• Economic autonomy
• The antipathy to modernity
The continuing need for effective nation-states
Framework of analysis
 The study of nationalism
 The nation-state: its power and role
 The idea of citizenship
How this is changing in the face
of globalization?
The era of nation-state may be
ended?
Definition
Nation-states are constituted by governments
assuming a legal and moral right to exercise
sole jurisdiction, supported by force in the
last resort, over a particular territory and its
citizens. This involves institutions for
managing domestic and foreign affairs
Nation-states and the
International System
 Predated the rise of modernity and industrial
capitalism
 Acted as a centralizing agency
 Controlled trades, aristocrats, religious
bodies
Driving forces:
 Military
 Economic rivalry among nations
The European Revolutions
 "Liberté, égalité, fraternité
 the Declaration of the Rights of Man,
expanded the arena of human rights
 the rise of republics and democracies,
 the spread of liberalism and secularism,
 the development of modern ideologies
Britain’s Industrial Revolution
 1) Industrialization
 2) Remove any obstacles
 3) The process was controlled by elites
 “the story of modernity was of a project to extend
human control over space, time, nature and society”
Albrow
 Driving forces:
 Capitalist and military organizations
The age of nation-state system
 Balance Power has shifted as each
new nation state wants to expand its
sphere of influence
 Search for new territories
 Colonization
Phases of development of Nation
States
 Treaty of Westphalia 1648
 Utrecht Treaty 1713
 Congress of Vienna 1815
 First World War 1914-1919
 Second World War 1939-1945
Social consequences of industrial
capitalism
 The loss of community
The relationships are based on contract and mutual interest
 Declining social cohesion and moral order
Industrialism
Urbanism
Secularization
Moral and social isolation
The conscience collective
Growing materialism
Egotism
Individualism
The outbreak of the First World
War
 Reinforced the national learning
 Research aimed at amelioration of social
conditions
 Creation of welfare state
 Creation of new form of social bond –
citizenship as a nation-building strategy
Citizenship
alludes to membership of and inclusion in a
national community
Elements:
 Legal equality and justice
 The right to be consulted on political matters
 Access to a minimum of protection against
economic insecurity
Principles
• Uniform rights to which everyone is equally entitled
• An implicit bargain
- Loyalty to nation-state’s objectives
- Accept military conscription
- Pay taxes
- Seek employment
- Obey the law
• Democratization by providing an equality of
membership status and the ability to participate in a
society
Three sets of rights
by T.H. Marshall
 Civil rights
The right to own property
Arrange contracts
Free assembly, speech and thought
Expect justice from impartial legal system
 Political rights
The ability to participate in national decision-making
Voting and elections
Establish movements
 Social rights
Access to welfare provisions
Old age, disability, family, unemployment benefits
Proper housing, education, health
Such minimum security gives an equal chance to enjoy personal autonomy and the
benefits of economic growth
Universal human rights
 Based on membership of and inclusion in a
particular national community and territory
=> raise the possibility of exclusion
 Migrants movements (transnational family,
cultural, political and business connections
with their home country)
 Complicated ethical, political and practical
issues
The biggest challenges…
 World citizenship
 Global citizens
How to Be a World Citizen?
 Understand the world doesn't end in your home village, town,
city, state or country
 Learn some new major languages
 Be tolerant and respectful of other people's cultures
 Resist, react, repeal, speak against xenophobia and intolerance
in all its forms
 Oppose racism, tribalism, regionalism, religious bias and all
kinds of segregation of any kind
 Value each human life as you value your own
 Feel welcome in whatever region of the world where you
happen to find yourself
 Consider each individual on his own merits and repeal
unfounded popular myths about certain nations and peoples
 Teach other people in normal conversation
 Don't refer to your special group if you intend your message to
be universal
 Find the best way you can really help
 Be active and contribute
 Learn from wise people and redistribute your knowledge
 Learn about the past in order to help build a better future
Globalization





1.
flows of people, technologies, ideas, symbols, capital, etc. (Appadurai)
time–space compression (Harvey)
action at distance (Giddens)
accelerating interdependence (Ohmae)
networking (Castells)
‘Hyperglobalizers vs sceptics’, where the key distinction concerns the
degree of novelty of globalization and its impact on nation-states;
2. ‘Neoliberals vs neo-Marxist and radicals’, where the key points are the
balance between positive and negative impacts of globalization and its
truly global or western hegemonic character; and
3. ‘Homogenization vs heterogeneity and hybridization’, which focuses on
the cultural dimension of globalization.
Globalization and Modernity
“we live in runway world where everything seems
out of control”

Traditions
no longer provide clear social directions => construction of self-identities and life
biographies
 Lifestyles
requires the selection of practices that enable the individuals to achieve selfactualization
 Risk
chemical spills, global warming, climate change
 Intimacy
democracy of emotions, openness, trust, equality
 Family
Separation sexuality and love from reproduction
 Rising fundamentalism
Contradictoriness of
Globalization
• Globalization is a process that has created at least as much
•
•
•
•
trouble as possibility. It is a process of social representation
Production and distribution vs. exploitation and poverty
Information has become increasingly available in real-time
vs information remains attached to particular interests and
power
The structures and the ideologies of the world are still
organized nationally
The rules and resources of governments rest on the
violence-backed power of state vs. the rules and resources
of governmentality rest on consensus and agreement
The dream of cosmopolitism,
“globalization” as a dominant new
imaginary
• The utopian vision of a cosmopolitan and boundaryless civil
society espoused by Kant (Idea for a universal history with a
cosmopolitan purpose. In Political writings)
• The utopia discourse of world civil society in formally
democratic institutional regimes, the quasi-world
governments as the League of Nations, The United Nations
(Bertrand Russell, Ralph Bunche)
• The utopia representation “globalization” in the late 1980s as
if a world civil society were finally at hand (A. Giddens, U.
Beck, M. Kaldor, J. Keane, D. Held)
Classical theoretical
writings
o Marx (class formation, mode of production)
o Durkheim (functional differentiation)
o Weber (bureaucracy, authority, power)
 Also Parsons, Elias, Goffman, Geerts
universalizing process and compression of
temporal, spatial, and cultural scale
Universalism and nationalism
 Durkheim: how to find a new set of universally
significant moral bonds to replace the religious
convictions threatened by secularization, while
cementing together the more complex national and
world orders created by individualism
 Marx: capitalist exploitation would ultimately create the
conditions for an increasingly organized and militant
working class so that it would send shudders through
nation-state societies
The Realist perspective
 World society is largely synonymous with the
relationship between states
 An inherent risk of conflicts erupting
 Relations
between states are mostly
dominated by question of military security,
appropriate foreign policies, nation security
 The word polity is hierarchical. States are not
equal in their capacity to shape events
Critique of the Realist
approach
 States agendas are much broader than
national security and military matters
 The rapid growth of powerful non-state,
transnational bodies (TNC)
 IGOs (the World bank, the IMF, and other)
Criticisms of international
relations theory
• Global Society and International
Relations: Sociological Concepts
and Political Perspectives,
Cambridge: Polity, 1994
Conflicts over questions of ethnic,
religious, gender and class
affiliation
Markets
 the institutional embodiment of the exchange
principle
 a system of society-wide coordination of human
activities, not by central command but by
mutual interactions in the form of transactions
 socially
regulation
constructed
entities
that
need
International markets
“-”




new patterns of hierarchy and inequality
new forms of inclusion and exclusion
a threat for existing forms of social cohesion
create social and inequalities in the world’s major cities
“+”
 increase the freedom of choice of individuals and groups
 open new opportunities for development
 contribute to integration through productive interdependence
 the spread of similar consumption standards (world youth culture)
 Give a sense of equal opportunities and a sense autonomous identity
Transnational and Multinational
corporations (TNCs and MNCs)
the large corporation acts as the ‘visible hand’ that integrates
economic life by internalizing a large number of economic
activities more efficiently than markets could do, through
processes of coordination, standardization and routinization
Characteristics
 operate on the basis of the authority principle
 act according to the rules of international competition and the
laws of the different countries in which they operate
 organize economic space according to an international division
of labour
 limit competition by setting barriers for new potential entrants
 control technological innovations
 organize global production and distribution networks
 their interest is global profitability
 pressure national governments and international organizations
 exploit the fragmentation of markets for labour and natural
resources, and their technologies
International governmental
organizations (IGOs)
 focus on collective policy problems of economic, ecological
and social security, rather than on the traditional
geopolitical relations of states, and fostered the growth of a
polyarchic, mixed-actor system of global politics
 provide a forum for other actors to be heard, give voice to
minorities, and uphold, at least to some extent, the
principles for which they have been established
 based on collective decision-making among governments
and non-governmental organizations and the goal of
consensual solutions to international problems
When the UN was established in 1945, there were 51 Member States. Now, there
are 193 Member States, nearly four times the original number. In comparison, the
size of the Security Council membership was increased once in 1965, from 11 to 15
members, through an increase in the number of non-permanent seats.
European nation-states in the
21 century
“The nation is imagined as limited because
even the largest of nations has a finite
boundary beyond which there are other
nations. It is imagined as sovereign in that
it displaces or undermines the legitimacy
of organized religion or the monarchy”
The Nation
 Imagined because members cannot all
know each other
 Limited because no nation encompasses all
of mankind, nor even aspires to
 Sovereign because nations came into being
during Enlightenment and strive for
freedom
 Community because a nation is conceived
of as a horizontal comradeship of equals
The Origins of National
Consciousness






Between 1820 & 1920 national print-languages were of central
ideological and political importance in Europe
Languages belonged no longer to God, but to their speakers, and
dictionaries and grammars treat all languages as equals
A language is a powerful means to root a nation to a past because a
language looms up from the past without any birth date of its own, and
suggests a community between a contemporary society and its dead
ancestors
Poetry and songs, as national anthems create a simultaneous
community of selfless voices
The new middle-class intelligentsia of nationalism had to invite the
masses into history
War monuments, holidays commemorating battles, holocausts,
genocides, and even fraternal (civil) wars serve to bond a nation to a
history
Three factors changing state
structures
 Internal pressures from domestic groups
 The political ferment and economic
transformations
 Institutional innovations (ex: legal codes,
mass education system)
Women and the state
 The state not only treats women unequally in
relation to men, it also constructs men and
women differently
 Controlled women in many ways
 Regarded as the main carriers of their country’s
unique cultural heritage
 Foucault: exercise biopower by states (to have
more children)
 Have often been deliberately targeted as war
victims
Women and contemporary warfare
 Up to 7 in 10 women around the world experience




physical and/or sexual violence at some point in their
lifetime
603 million women live in countries where domestic
violence is not yet considered a crime
As many as 1 in 4 women experience physical or
sexual violence during pregnancy
Over 60 million girls worldwide are child brides,
married before the age of 18
Approximately 250,000 to 500,000 women and girls
were raped in the 1994 Rwandan genocide
Does globalization mean the
decline of the nation-state?
• States have to adhere to the demands of IGOs
• Declining capacity to determine the own military
strategies and foreign policies
• Relatively easy for terrorists and criminals to
obtain lethal arms, small explosives and even
certain types of nuclear weaponry
• A growing body of international law is
increasingly infringing on state autonomy
• The ability of states to determine effective
national economic policies is declining
Military blocks
 NATO and others
International collective
movements
the heirs of the critical social movements that developed on a national
basis, such as the feminist, environmental and anti-war movements
Function
 engaged in mobilizing transnational communities of resistance and
solidarity
 taking advantage of the same technological resources that corporations
use to control the market
 organize parallel summits of global society in the same place and time
as major transnational institutions, like the IMF or the G8
International non-governmental
organizations (INGOs)
 challenge governments and win wide support across national borders
 represent effective pressure groups vis-a-vis global decisionmakers
 play key roles in international cooperation and in the formation of a
global civil society and public space
 have soft power => the driving force of the decision-making process
The resurgence of national and
ethnic demands and rivalries
•
•
•
•
The crisis in the Balkans
The first Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the Gulf War
The continuing dispute between China and Taiwan
The uncertainties over long-established ethnic,
linguistic, religious or regional demands for
autonomy in Northern Ireland, Canada, Spain,
Palestine and several African countries
• The
uncertainties
surrounding
the
UN’s
interventions
• The proliferation of chemical and nuclear weaponry
The antipathy to Modernity
 Highly informed reflexive citizen networks
 Ethnic and regional minorities demanding the
devolution of some or most central powers to
local levels
 Widespread public disillusionment with the
rhetoric of conventional party politics
The changes associated with
postmodernity are transforming all
social and cultural experiences
• The tendency of disappearing of such meta-narratives
•
•
•
•
as liberalism, nationalism and socialism as significant
factors in our lives
All boundaries and status hierarchies are breaking down
Every aspect and area of cultural and social life is
acquiring a money value
The pursuit of individual self-realization, narcissistic
enjoyment of the body and the construction of private
and distinctive lifestyles
Rising volume of information, images and messages
Camelleri and Frank encourage us to
deconstruct the meta-narratives of
nationalism and democracy:
 Cultural pluralism undermines national
politics
 “British”, “Canadian” – who are they?
Transnational states
William Robinson
 Transnational network of politicians and officials who are
sympathetic to global capitalism together with elites
linked to various supranational economic and political
forums
 They serve the interests of transnational capitalism, act
as midwives of capitalist globalization
 Use globalization as a pretext to cut welfare expenditure,
remove trade union rights and deregulate labor markets
Cosmopolitan democracy
Held and Archibugi
 Citizens, wherever they are located in the world, have a
voice, input and political representation in international
affairs, in parallel with and independently of their own
governments
 Requires the creation of authoritative global institution
able to monitor the political regimes of member
countries and to influence the domestic affairs of states
where necessary
 Creating regional parliaments
Conclusions by Jeffrey C.
Alexander
• No liberalization in the normative sense, no moral
•
•
•
•
•
purchase, no individual freedom and civil rights
The structures and the ideologies of the world are
still organized nationally
The role of the expansion of organizational and
cultural power
A process of space/time/meaning compression is
ongoing
The dream of cosmopolitan peace has not died
Globalization is a new and powerful social
representation