Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-rvbq7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T10:28:50.793Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

World without Borders? Reflections on the Future of the Nation‐State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Extract

THE PARTICULARISTIC CHARACTER OF THE POLITICAL WORLD, THE separation of political communities into poleis, territorial-states or nation-states, has always provoked the universalist criticism of borders as artificial and incompatible with universal humanity. Such demarcations were even suspected of being one of mankind's greatest evils. Edmund Burke, for example, wrote in his A Vindication of Natural Society – a response to Rousseau's Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of Inequality – that ‘this artificial division of mankind, into separate societies, is a perpetual source in itself of hatred and dissention among them’.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Burke, Edmund, ‘A Vindication of Natural Society’, in Pre‐Revolutionary Writings, ed. by Harris, Ian, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993, p. 28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Bull, Hedley, ‘The State’s Positive Role in World Affairs’, Daedalus, 108:4 (Fall 1979), pp. 111–23.Google Scholar

3 Lepsius, M. Rainer, ‘Der europäische Nationalstaat: Erbe and Zukunft’, in Interessen, Ideen und Institutionen, Opladen, Westdeutscher Verlag, 1990, pp. 256–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Schulze, Hagen, Staat und Nation in der europäischen Geschichte, Munich, Beck, 1994, p. 239.Google Scholar

5 There is, however, at the same time a rich literature on the resurgence of nationalism and the nation‐state. Here I only mention Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London, Verso, 1991 Google Scholar; Brubaker, Rogers, Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Gellner, Ernest, Nations and Nationalism, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1983.Google Scholar

6 Giddens, Anthony, A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism Vol. 2, The Nation‐State and Violence, Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1987, p. 13 Google Scholar.

7 Wallace, William, ‘Rescue or Retreat? The Nation State in Western Europe, 1945–93’, Political Studies, 42 (Special Issue 1994), pp. 5276.Google Scholar

8 For the issue of globalization and the nation‐state, see also Smith, Anthony D., Nations and Nationalism in a Global Era, Oxford, Polity Press, 1995 Google Scholar; Ruggie, John Gerard, ‘Territoriality and Beyond: Problematizing Modernity in International Relations’, International Organization, 47: 1 (Winter 1993), pp. 139–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Brock, Lothar and Albert, Mathias, ‘Entgrenzung der Staatenwelt: Zur Analyse weltgesellschaftlicher Entwicklungstendenzen’, Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen, (1995), pp. 259–85Google Scholar; Albrow, Martin, The Global Age: State and Society Beyond Modernity, Oxford, Polity Press, 1996 Google Scholar; Beck, Ulrich, Was ist Globalisierung? Irrtümer des Globalismus ‐ Antworten auf Globalisierung, Frankfurt, Suhrkamp, 1997 Google Scholar. The question of democracy is however only rarely addressed in this context. But see Karl Kaiser, ‘Zwischen neuer Interdependenz und altem Nationalstaat: Vorschläge zur Re‐Demokratisierung’, in Weidenfeld, Werner (ed.), Demokratie am Wendepunkt: Die demokratische Frage als Projekt des 21. Jahrhunderts, Berlin, Siedler, 1996, pp. 311–28Google Scholar; Scharpf, Fritz W., ‘Demokratie in der transnationalen Politik’, in Beck, Ulrich (ed.), Politik der Globalisierung, Frankfurt, Suhrkamp, 1998, pp. 228–53Google Scholar; Streeck, Wolfgang (ed.), Internationale Wirtschaft, nationals Demokratie: Herausforderungen für die Demokratietheorie, Frankfurt/New York, Campus, 1998 Google Scholar; and Habermas, Jürgen, Die postnationale Konstallation: Politische Essays, Frankfurt, Suhrkamp, 1998.Google Scholar

9 Strange, Susan, The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 Ersnst‐Otto, Czempiel, ‘Konturen einer Gesellschaftswelt: Die neue Architektur der internationalen Politik’, Merkur, 44: 10/11 (1990), pp. 850–1.Google Scholar

11 Guéhenno, Jean‐Marie, La fin de la démocratie, Paris, Flammarion, 1993.Google Scholar

12 Habermas, Jürgen, ‘Der europáische Nationalstaat – Zur Vergangenheit and Zukunft von Souveränität und Staatsbürgerschaft’, in Die Einbeziehung des Anderen: Studien zur politischen Theorie, Frankfurt, Suhrkamp, 1996, pp. 129–30Google Scholar.

13 For a comprehensive analysis see: Anderson, Malcolm, Frontiers: Territory and State Formation in the Modern World, Oxford, Polity Press, 1996 Google Scholar. For the history of the term see: Febvre, Lucien, ‘Frontère: the Word and the Concept’, in Burke, Peter (ed.), A New Kind of History and Other Essays, New York, Harper & Row, 1973, pp. 208–18Google Scholar. For a convincing historical typology, see: Osterhammel, Jürgen, ‘Kulturelle Grenzen in der Expansion Europas’, Saeculum, 46: 1 (1995), pp. 101–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 Simmel, Georg, ‘Soziologie: Untersuchungen über die Formen der Vergesellschaftung’, Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 11 Google Scholar, Frankfurt, Suhrkamp, 1992, p. 697.

15 Luhmann, Niklas, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, Frankfurt, Suhrkamp, 1997 Google Scholar, Chapter 4.

16 For a comprehensive survey of border conflicts, see: Allcock, John B., Border and Territorial Disputes, 3rd ed., Essex, Longman, 1992.Google Scholar

17 Weiner, Myron (ed.), International Migration and Security, Boulder, Westview, 1993 Google Scholar.

18 Andreas, Peter, ‘U.S: Mexico: Open Markets, Closed Borders’, Foreign Policy, 103 (1996), pp. 5169.Google Scholar

19 Otto Kimminich, Einführung in das Völkerrecht, 6th ed., Tübingen/Basel, A. Francke, 1997, p. 202.

20 Arendt, Hannah, The Origins of Totalitarianism, New York, Harcourt, Brace, 1951, pp. 266–87.Google Scholar

21 Kimminich, Otto, ‘Human Rights vs. Reason of State: International Law. On the History of International Institutions’, Universitas, 34: 3 (1992), pp. 164–9.Google Scholar

22 Dahrendorf, Ralf, ‘Die Zukunft des Nationalstaates’, Merkur, 48: 9/10 (1994), pp. 751–61.Google Scholar

23 Scharpf, Fritz W., ‘Die Handlungsfähigkeit des Staates am Ende des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts’, Politische Vierteljahresschrift, 32:4 (1991), pp. 621–34.Google Scholar

24 Cerny, Philip G., ‘Paradoxes of the Competition State: The Dynamics of Political Globalization’, Government and Opposition, 32:2 (Spring 1997), pp. 251–74.Google Scholar

25 Dahrendorf, Ralf, ‘Prosperity, Civility and Liberty: Can We Square the Circle?’ in After 1989: Morals, Revolution and Civil Society, London, Macmillan, 1997, pp. 6879.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 Goffman, Erving, Relations in Public: Micro Studies of the Public Order, London, Penguin, 1971 Google Scholar.

27 Coulmas, Peter, Weltbürger: Geschichte einer Menschheitssehnsucht, Reinbek, Rowohlt, 1990.Google Scholar

28 Horowitz, Donald L., ‘Self‐Determination: Politics, Philosophy, and Law’, in Shapiro, Ian and Kymlicka, Will (eds), Ethnicity and Group Rights (Nomos XXXIX), New York, New York University Press, 1997, pp. 421–63.Google Scholar

29 See Brubaker, Nationalism Ref ramed.

30 Rufin, Jean‐Christophe, Ľempire et les nouveaux Barbares, Paris, Editions Jean‐Claude Lattès, 1991.Google Scholar

31 Huntington, Samuel P., The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, New York, Simon & Schuster, 1996.Google Scholar

32 Giesen, Bernhard, ‘Kulturelle Vielfalt und die Einheit der Moderne’, Leviathan, 24:1 (1996), pp. 92108.Google Scholar

33 Soysal, Yasemin Nuholu, Limits of Citizenship: Migrants and Postnational Membership in Europe, Chicago/London, The University of Chicago Press, 1994 Google Scholar; Jacobson, David, Rights across Borders: Immigration and the Decline of Citizenship, Baltimore/London, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996 Google Scholar; and Sassen, Saskia, Losing Control? Sovereignty in the Age of Globalization, New York, Columbia University Press, 1996.Google Scholar

34 Soysal, Limits of Citizenship, p. 165.

35 Kimminich, Otto, Einführung in das Völkerrecht, p. 354.Google Scholar

36 Dittgen, Herbert, ‘The American Debate about Immigration in the 1990s: A New Nationalism After the End of the Cold War?’, Stanford Humanities Review, 5:2 (1997), pp. 254–83.Google Scholar

37 Sassen, Losing Control?, p. 98.

38 Louis B. Sohn and Thomas Buergenthal (eds), The Movement of Persons Across Borders, Washington, D.C., The American Society of International Law, 1992.

39 Klusmeyer, Douglas B., Between Consent and Descent: Conceptions of Democratic Citizenship, Washington, D.C., Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1996.Google Scholar

40 Kant, Immanuel, ‘Zum ewigen Frieden: Ein philosophischer Entwurf’, Werke, Vol. 9, ed. by Weischedel, Wilhelm, Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1995, p. 226.Google Scholar

41 Kant, Immanuel, ‘Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlicher Absicht’, Werke, Vol. 9, pp. 41–5Google Scholar; Jürgen Habermas, ‘Kants Idee des ewigen Friedens – aus dem historischen Abstand von 200 Jahren’, Die Einbeziehung des Anderen: Studien zur politischen Theorie, Frankfurt, Suhrkamp, 1996, p. 234.