IP NOTES 9/26

Political Identity and Nation
state is public face, nation is internal political structure, people, etc
DEFINITION: Nation is a group of people who think of themselves as a nation
-...wtf
-dominant phenomenon is that people think of themselves as members
DEFINITION: Nationalism is an ideology that holds that the nation should be the dominant political association above all others, and that each nation should have a state
-nation uber alis?
nation is not the only form of political identity
Types of political identity
religions are huge here, as well as nations
nations are big too
liberal form- civic/public form of identity
cosmpolitanism/civil ideas
-nation is only one of the types of political identity
Elements of nation
-previously: race
-place (nation is a locale)
-language (nation is a common language)
-to be members of an effective civic community, you must share a language (with exceptions, of course)
-there are ~5000 languages in the world, not all of these have a political identity
-HISTORY vs MEMORY
-history is what happened in the past (objective)
-memory is a highly selective VIEW of what happened in the past, a narrative
The Constructed Primordial
one important thing in the form of a nation is to be primordial (created by nature in some way)
-the nation claims that it existed before political existence
-generally these are forged (faked or created as in IRON)
-FORGED means that many of the things that bring the nation to being focus on war
Patterns Across Space and Time
Empires, Civilizations, and Ethnicity
Until recently, the nation was NOT the dominant player in world politics
most people lived in large empires for most of history
-these empires tended to be massive, containing many ethnicities
-they tended to be polyglot
-the elites were mostly trans-national, and configured around many religions
European Origin
the idea of a NATION formed in the 19th century in europe
-there were STATES before, but not NATION-STATES
-in the french revolution of 1789, the nation was unified with the stateh
-during the french revolution, the vast majority of the people gained franchise, became major actors
-for the first time, the public face of the state connected with the internal form of the nation
-this is hugely advantageous for france
-french military gets massively effective (read: napoleon, etc), because the people have a vested interest in the state
-Italy and Germany also begin to form states
-these are different because they are EXPLICITLY nation-state building
-bismarck consolidates germanic peoples, same thing happens in italy
Globalism: Nationalism vs Imperialism
KEY POINT:
Nationalism spread to the world as the only method for colonized powers to throw off the yoke of european dominance
-the first one of these is the US, 1770s
-then comes latin america during the 1820s
-this only works because they're able to see themselves as NATIONS to mobilize their people
-this trend globalizes during the 1950s, 60s with Asia, Africa, Middle East
-these people didn't actually have the concept of a NATION persay before, but they emulate the europeans to counteract them
-hilariously ironic
-wars of liberation are the key force against imperial powers
Explanations (I): Nationalism & Modernity
Enlightenment vs Romanticism
enlightenment- "the template of the modern"
-an appeal to reason
-understood to be universal in its application
-focused on progress
-political identity tended to be cosmopolitan
THE NATION COMES INTO EUROPEAN THOUGHT AS A REBELLION AGAINST THE ENLIGHTENMENT
key figures:
-John Roussau
-Burke
-Herder
romanticism-
-appeal to sentiment or emotion rather than reason
-appeal to particular rather than universal
-focus on tradition rather than progress
-patriotism rather than cosmopolitanism
the key figures argue that romanticism is STRONGER than enlightenment
contradiction here: the CONTENT of the nation is starkly ANTI-MODERN, but yet the nation is the modern form of association
Democratization and Literacy
in the past, bulk of population is non-political
-masses dominated by the elite
-dominant trend in democratization is that more and more people get enfranchised
the masses come onto the political scene speaking the VERNACULAR
-this means that the nation gains a national language, rather than only elites speaking elite languages
-with capitalism, printing presses print books that people want to buy
-this means that the common language explodes onto the scene
-"print culture" is founded
Specialization and Differentiation
with modernization and ^^, people urbanize, move into cities
-this means that there's a huge amount of interaction between people
-interaction goes way up
-huge increase in socioeconomic stratification
-rise in functional differentiation
-there are a huge number of TASKS that people do, they differentiate according to the occupational niches that exist
the nation is the 'software' through which increasingly specialized and differentiated peoples are able to interact
-the national is related to the modern because it is FUNCTIONAL
-its only there because it works so well in providing commonality
Secularization
one of key factors in the modern world is displacement of the role of religion
-in the past, religions were totalistic
-told people exactly what they did and who they were
-basically comprehensive answers to all questions ever
the modern world is characterized by the subversion of the cosmology of religion
-modern science is largely credited with this subversion, people just didnt believe anymore
-there was a disenchantment with religion
the enlightenment expectation was that religion would be replaced by cosmopolitan association
-this didnt happen
-the national partially displaced religion instead
-nationalism filled the hole that science had left with its destruction of religion
Explanations (II): States, War, and Nations
Official Nationality
States build nations, its just what they do
-gives them legitimacy
-nation-building involves the destruction of other forms of identity
-happens though education, as well as the military
The holy trinity of Realism
there's a hugely important triangular relationship between the nation, state, and war
-states make war (to legitimize themselves, nation-building)
-war sanctifies a nation (helps to FORGE it) (blood-sacrifice legitimizes the nation)
-the nation legitimizes the state (increases the military power of the state)
-states make war again! yay positive feedback loops!
ALSO WORKS BACKWARDS
-extreme nationality intensifies the character of war
-wars make states (more wars build more states)
-states can also build nations (they get the warrant to supress competing political identities, etc)
Consequences: Internal and External
because of these positive feedback loops, we get HYPER-NATIONALISM
-when we have extreme nationalism, we get extreme violence
-the enemy gets so villified that its forced to be eradicated
-when INTERNAL, this is ETHNIC CLEANSING
-either get them to leave or kill them all
-this is a largely modern phenomenon, because of the national identity
-when EXTERNAL, this is massive war
-war becomes more frequent and more violent
-increase in suspicion and mistrust, decrease in cooperation and commonality