Constructing a double-edged sword in a nation-state

The country is a concept that is both familiar and unfamiliar. Is it a historical entity or a legal entity? Is it a completely objective reality or an emotional carrier? Especially when it is connected to a nation that is considered a “imaginary community”, the situation becomes more complicated. As far as China is concerned, is China a modern "nation-state" or a "socialist country" or, according to Marxist theory, a state that must be experienced before the country's complete demise? Understanding these issues requires the stimulation of ideas from outside the domain. The book "Contemporary State Theory: Foundations and Frontiers" edited by Guo Zhonghua and Guo Taihui tries to select a book that reflects the latest state of the current state theory in a large amount of national theoretical literature. It can be described as a weapon to understand the concept and status quo of the country.

The theory of the country is vast, and different theories have completely different interpretations of the state. For example, even in the relatively specific genre of the neo-institutional school, there is a strange view to the state: the public choice school regards the state as a "rational economy." As a result of the pursuit of interests, historical institutionalism sees the state as the result of the “path dependence” of history. Sociology institutionalism sees it as the result of a specific “cultural mechanism”, which discourse discourse sees it as “discourse”. The result of communication.

This is only a horizontal diversity, and then from a vertical perspective. Before and after the Western Enlightenment, the study of the state had long been embodied in a logical deduction based on certain pre-determined concepts (such as mythology, ethics, philosophy, etc.), and the "social contract theory" was the highest peak of this research method. But when a series of nation-states were formed in Europe, the influence of social contract theory began to weaken and was replaced by a social and historical interpretation of the state. During this period, Marx, Durkheim, Weber and other thinkers put forward their own interpretations of the origin, motivation, problems and future of the nation-state, and formed an analytical path and theoretical system that influenced later generations. Later, when the two world wars spawned a series of new nation-states on all continents, the state theory was further upgraded, and the “real” research of the state more and more replaced the traditional “should” imagination. The macro description has also turned into micro and mesoscopic research.

To thoroughly understand such a lavish national theory, it is necessary to have a program. The first part of the book begins with the issue of national origin and examines national rights, state and social relations, national membership, welfare state, military violence, etc. The next chapter selects new Marxism, new institutionalism, public choice, Post-structuralism, feminism, globalization, and other trends of thought on the country can be described as colorful, and an encyclopedic interpretation of state theory. Of course, these chapters are just an entrance to thinking, and there is even more depth in it to explore. In view of the content of this book, the author only selects and introduces the part of the national-national and highly realistic relevance.

In terms of the way in which nation-states are created, the University of California professor Philip Lulued’s theory of the divisional system argues that nationalism widely spread among the masses rarely precedes national identity and usually does not precede independent sovereignty. exist. In a few cases, nationalism emerged before the construction of state identity and national independence. More national-national construction success claims are not supported by widespread or strong popular nationalism, but more often, state power creates national and mass nationalism, and this happens after national independence. There is a national construction and then nationalism. This theory has a subversive significance.

Lloyd pointed out that even the earliest and most typical ethnic-states emerged in this way. Eugen Road Weber said: "Many French people did not realize that they were connected until the long-term popularization movement at the end of the 19th century. The change they experienced told them that it makes sense." In the UK, until 1900 The common national identity was popularized in the British Isles. The Italian revival leader Azelio has a famous saying: "We created Italy, and now we must create Italians."

Of course, our usual understanding is that the national consciousness awakens first, then the national independence movement, and finally the state was established. Why is this understanding the opposite of real history? The reason is that the independent government is committed to promoting its authority from the sovereign will of the people to obtain legitimacy. On the one hand, it is the official narrative of the founding of the country, on the other hand, it is the myth of social circulation. The facts that are inconsistent with this narrative are concealed and gradually forgotten by future generations. On the research side, he likes to retrospectively construct a successful nation-state, while ignoring the failure of the nation-state to build common sense, interpret the evidence on the premise that there is already a result, and to clarify the imaginary national identity link before the founding of the country. It is claimed that this identity has been injected into the air before independence. These interpretations are officially supported, and evidence pointing to other aspects, such as evidence lacking community identity before independence, will be forgotten or destroyed as evidence of possible incitement to split emotions.

After the completion of this process of “reconstructing nationalism before the founding of the People's Republic”, scholars will “racialize” the nation, that is, to trace back to a longer time, preaching a myth about common origin. This beautification and dissemination of national myths will receive a strong return from the government. One of the latest examples is that Uzbekistan, which was founded after the collapse of the Soviet Union, has embodied the myth of the Uzbek nation and traced the history of the continuation of the race back to the Middle Ages. However, in fact, in the highly mobile Central Asian steppe, there is no fixed national border in ancient times.

One aspect of nationalism is the construction of internal myths, and on the other hand, the aggressiveness of the outside world. William Lulus Lubruck, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, analyzed the history of France. In the early days of the French Revolution, popular nationalism was friendly cosmopolitanism and pacifism, but from 1792, when the new social order felt that it had been surrounded by internal and external enemies, repulsive nationalism developed. Based on the feeling that “the motherland is in crisis”, the exclusionary nationalist factor targets the foreigners within the territory and leads to a self-expanding and aggressive nationalist external expansion, which was originally missionary and The jihad, a "Crusade of the Crusades for Freedom", later became purely imperialism and a winning belief. French nationalism has always shown political-ideological characteristics rather than racial and cultural characteristics, but the Napoleonic wars spurred German nationalism, which was more racially colored, which paved the way for the emergence of the Nazis. Perhaps this is an example of the constant “deterioration” of repulsive nationalism.

What should be seen is that the modern nation-state is very different from the ancient state. The British political thinker Anthony Lugdens pointed out that "absolute state", "nation-state" and "nationalism" are all European phenomena from the perspective of origin. The brutal war launched by the monarchs of the European absolutist countries in the early modern period had a lasting impact on the formation of the European territory. In 1500, there were about 500 autonomous political units in Europe, and by 1900 this number had been reduced to 25. In the process of transition from an absolutist state to a nation-state, the establishment of the foundation of capitalism-industrialism has become a necessary condition for a powerful country to survive and expand in a system of nations. So the formation of the nation-state is intertwined with modern capitalism, which he believes is not an accidental connection as analysts such as Tilly thinks.

In pre-capitalist societies, and even in the absolutist countries of Europe, the state and the ruling class are not highly monitored, as is the control of workers in state administrations and labor processes. The term "autocratic rule" is easy to mislead us: In fact, although the ancient monarchy mastered the power of the subjects, he could not directly control the daily life of the subjects. The daily life was largely in accordance with local traditional customs. This is the difference between the ancient "authoritarianism" and the modern "totalitarianism", which is based on the large-scale expansion of national monitoring activities.

In the new nation-state system, nationalism has two sides. In the anti-colonial movement, nationalism was once regarded as a useful force, closely related to the achievements of the third world civil rights. However, the opponents also called nationalism "barbaric dreams and imaginations." Kaduri said that nationalism is "an insignificant antique, an evil invention of some astray German philosophers."

Giddens believes that nationalism is essentially a psychological phenomenon involving demand and emotion. In the modern world, the significance of nationalism is closely related to the decline of tradition and the fragmentation of everyday life. This applies equally to modern societies and to societies where culture is subject to tension or conflict. In traditional culture, the maintenance framework of “ontological security” is sustained through continuous practice in local communities. But in large societies where tradition has largely been replaced by routines, moral meaning and self-identity have retreated to the margins of the private and public spheres. Feelings of language commonality and a sense of belonging to the national community have become a source of maintaining “ontological security”. Especially in the case that “ontology security” is threatened or stressed, people will have emotional attachment to the leaders, which is expressed as a strong psychological dependence on “inside the group” and a different treatment on “outside the group”.

In fact, stubborn nationalism shattered the idealist rose dream. Marxists advocate that the working class does not have a motherland. It has been imagined that after a revolutionary war that liberated all mankind, there will be no war of conquest and society will be able to transcend the country. Marx once thought that the so-called real revolutionary movement, the labor movement, would provide a historic solution to the anarchy of the capital market. However, such transcendence did not happen. Without a nation-state, anarchy would pose a threat of destruction to all, and in the face of a nation-state violent monopoly, all existing world organizations seem to be powerless.

The world seems to have fallen into a trap of "path dependence." The nation-state will only strengthen, but will not dissolve. This is especially true through the prism of the rise of the world's populism. Giddens said that the most fundamental problem we face today is the difficulty of changing the expansion of violent means in the hands of the nation-state. "Refused to admit that we are standing on the edge of the historical cliff today is meaningless. We are living in some terrible way. After 500,000 years of human history, we are facing the life expectancy and the overall life of human beings for the first time. At the same time, the possibility of ending." Under the surface of globalization and prosperity, this kind of worry is hidden. This is the great irony of the evolution of the historical form of the nation-state.

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