Foundations 103- Division One
Tony Chu
Sept 25th, 2003
http://foundations.arts.ubc.ca/fedoruk/101/
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Title
Greg - The Origins of the Nation-State

What is the nation?

A nation is simply a catergory of practice.

It is a way we identify ourselves. It is a common practice in which we declare that we are of one nation (catergory), and simultaneously imply that we are not of any other nations (other catergories). Thus the practise is also relational (we are of a nation relative to all the other nations that we are not.)

Conversely, we need one nation to identify the other. There needs to be more than one catergory (nation) inorder to make this labeling useful. It doesn't make sense to introduce ourselves as homo sapiens when there are no other type of "homo" speice that exist.

Greg goes to Vienna

It's an international convention that is supposed to promote diversity and international unity with academics coming from all over the planet.

What's the first thing they do? Put on name tags with little flags of their national origin.

*Greg's words as close as I could remember* "We are forced to deal with some of the (national catergory) practice. We have to put it out, work them and circumnavigate them."

Because, in another of Greg's words, the practise is "omnipresent."

The concept of nations, by its very nature, emphasizes difference between different nations, and downplays differences within the nation. In short, the concept of nation establish (arbitary) limits and boundaries between people and catergorize peoples into different social-geographical groups (pigeon-holes, as Greg calls them).

An example would be that most people outside Europe would not be able to tell very well the difference between a German and an Austrian; yet both Austrians and Germans would take great offense at being confused and stress (emphasize) their difference.

The Pretty Picture Book

Greg cited the example of the Austrian picture book, which wrote (some would say re-wrote) the historical significance of Vienna as the city which turned back Islamization.

This example brings up three interesting points that are keys to the lecture and the reading in Imagined Communities:

  1. Nationalism as Relational Categorization
    The establishment of a national identity is very much the declaration of being unique, therefore not something else.
    The Austrian picture book identifies that Austrians are NOT Islam. If there is no Islam, then the definition falls apart. The definition a nation is related (relational) to the definition of other things.
  2. Nationalism As Established by (the Illusion of) Antiquity
    Greg points out that when the Turks invaded, there was concept of the nation "Austria" being there at all. They did not fight the Turks as the Austrian Nation. History, in a sense here is rewritten. The concept of Austrian or Austria is put into historical timeframe when the that concept did not yet exist. Anderson (Imagined Communities) suggests that this is because the nation needs an illusion of antiquity in order to authenticate its "nationhood." Nations also like to selectively forget certain parts of history for the same effect.
    It's easy for a bunch of old guys to get together and say, "man, we as a group (nation), sure were great in those days."

    Sort of like a nation-wide male-bonding thing.

    Or, as Anderson would say, they imagined themselves a community.
  3. Nationalism created through Print-Capitalism
    In Imagined Communities, one of the points stressed is the significance of the print media in consolidating the national identity. Although this picture book isn't a very strong example, it is very much part of the much greater phenomenon. Every Austrian, and in fact not-Austrian (relational catergory), upon seeing all the pretty pictures and the (re)written history would think that, "Yup, this is the national identity of Austria. We have pretty mountians and we are not Islam."

Through these methods, peoples (may or may not be the entire population) create the illusion of a hegemony of a race or a nation.

Why does Greg use the word "illusion"? Why are these "imagined communities"? Do they not have something they all share in common?

Well, according to Greg, No~! They very often do not.

  • Peoples are not nationals by Blood
  • Peoples are not nationals by divine Right
  • Peoples are not nationals by locality of Birth
  • Peoples are not nationals by Nature

Even though those are common rallying cries for nationalistic ventures.
Two Types of National Brackets (Pigeon holes)

There are two different types of nations in the world, both of which are not primoral, but constructed with a series of rhetorics.

  1. The Ethnic Nation
    Members of the ethnic nation share the same blood, common descent, common lneage, common language. They also sometimes share a tradition of literature and a tradition of suffering. All of these claims of national character can be manufactured. Herder was the first to put this form of nationalism into book form. There are a whole slew of nations of this type. (Japan, Germany - nations with a [illusion of] hegemony of race)
  2. The Civic Nation
    Individuals participate in the sate and become a citizen if one abides by the laws and use the languages of the land. Each individual is supposed to invest into the national project. However, even the civic nation is not exactly open. There are still very definite limits on "membership" for these nations. Immigrants need to "jump through hoops" in order to get into the group.

Nations, in this sense, and almost like an exclusive club. Only the select few can join it. For people from the outside, they need to learn the club's secrets (language) and go through induction rituals (Oath of Allegiance in Canada) inorder to gain that nationality. Yet, others are born with the "privilege".

Our "club-fee" to joining these nations is that we owe them our allegiance. We have to award our loyalty to one nation. This has profound implications when nations go to war.
The State part of Nation-State

The United Nations defines the nation states as the base unit of global organization. It's a very vague definition.

How does a nation gain statehood in history?

This is in a large part attached to the development of the Empires. Nations in history came together to form bases from which they expanded. A successfully pulled together nation like Britain gained great influence and statehood through their empire.

This consolidation is not always successful. Even though the "social evolution theory" suggests that great civilizations grow out of states of barbarism, real consolidation of nations into a state and an empire are only moderately successful. States are large, but not nessecarily consolidated.

The Czarist Empire and the Austrian-Hungary Empire are two examples of extremely diverse and multi-nationalistic empires in which the national awakening lead fractures in the empires.

The Nationalist sperations grew out of the believe that the common man, the peasentry is the source of power and the sourse of nationhood.

"If we are a nation, we deserve a state."

That was the principle. It proved too troublesome. If EVERY nation demands its own state, all states in the world would fall apart because each and every state has national minorities. The UN said, scratch that - we're using the more ambiguous term - peoples.

The Benes Decree - Germans had to be evicted to the German lands after WW2 in Czechoslovakia. This was 50 years ago. The decree never got repealed. The EU wouldn't let the Czechs in without repealling it. Even then it wasn't immediately repealled. Such is the legacy of the war, and the power of nationalism.

There are alternatives to the nation-state. The Soviet Union had in it different national republics. However, in theory each member of the Soviet socialist republic put their allegiance first and foremost to the CLASS IDENTITY. The national identity is subordinate to the class identity.

The EU is a more modern attempt at a "super-state." It attempts to create its identity around the Euro-centric super-nation. It takes it's traditions from Plato to NATO, and attempts to get Europeans across the continent imagine themselves as one community.
The Mythical Entity of Nation

The nation-state is a funny thing. Each nation-state has certain institutions and functionaries that are analogus to organs and limbs which the nation-state cannot live without.

Imagine a nation-state without a military. Funny, right?

Nations with a common history and a common language can diverge into different states with different national identities. The New-world nations are examples. Most Americans and Canadians speaks English, which came from England.