Nationalism Lecture 12: Beyond nationalism? The case of European integration Prof. Lars-Erik Cederman Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS) Seilergraben 49, Room G.2 lcederman@ethz.ch http://www.icr.ethz.ch/teaching/nationalism Assistant: Kimberly Sims , CIS, Room E 3, k-sims@northwestern.edu
Nationalism beyond the nation-state: Supranational Integration • Concepts • Theory families • Democracy in the European Union
Tree historical situations States present? No Yes Territorial “Middle States Ages” Nations present? No Toward neo- Yes Medievalism? Nation- States
Concepts • Essentialism vs. Constructivism • Second dimension: viability of political integration defined in terms of: – policy – institutions – identity : retention or supersession?
Four theory families Approach to supra- national integration Retention Supersession Assumption about identity-formation Pan- Ethno- Essentialism nationalism nationalism Constructivism Post- Bounded nationalism integration
Ethno-nationalism • Essentialist, culture-driven logic • Rejection of supranationalist identities as artificial, lacking historical depth • Not clear what European culture stands for • Thus, the nation-state will remain the main locus of identity • See A. D. Smith
Post-Nationalism • Constructivist-instrumentalist principles • Politics driven by material conditions, and because of technological development, the scale of political identities grows • De-coupling of politics and “deep” culture, toward a “thin” political culture • Habermas’ “constitutional patriotism” • Goal: European or cosmopolitan Jürgen Habermas integration
Bounded integration • Constructivist-institutionalist principles • Identities “sticky” • Reciprocal link between politics and culture sustained by institutions Ernest Gellner • Nation-state is a stable historical equilibrium (cf. Gellner, Anderson etc.) • Thus, supranationalist identity- formation is difficult Benedict Anderson
Pan-Europeanism • Romantic movement dating back to interwar period (Coudenhove-Kalergi, de Rougemont) • Myth of European culture • Search for “other” • Cultural projects of European Commission Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi 1894-1972
Democracy beyond the nation-state? • The democratic deficit of the European Union • The “demos” is the popular unit of people voting in a democracy • Key assumptions: – Historical priority of demos and democracy – Nature of demos
Ethno-Nationalism “primacy of demos” nation as cultural, democracy bounded demos
Post-Nationalism: Civic Voluntarism “primacy of democratic practice” thin, non-cultural, democratic constitution unbounded demos practice
Bounded Integration “tandem hypothesis” identity- partly cultural, building democracy bounded demos institutions
Institutional mechanisms of identity-formation • External – warfare – other exchanges • Internal – Mass media – Education – Language policy
Recommend
More recommend
