On the Separation of Nations and States

On the Separation of Nations and States

Nationalism is one of the most powerful driving forces of political life and is closely linked to the decisive conflicts of the present. This contribution sets out to examine the differences between nations and states, to highlight the frequent confusion of the terms, and to question how they have been regarded as inseparably connected over the past centuries. While there is a largely unconscious, conventional notion that nations should ideally have their own states, an opposing position holds that the merging of nation and state is not an ideal. Rather, it is a source of conflict, of the degradation of national culture itself, and a central problem of political thought and life today.

References

• Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London - New York: Verso, 2006.

• Gottlieb, Gidon. Nation Against State: A New Approach to Ethnic Conflicts and the Decline of Sovereignty. Council on Foreign Relations, 1993.

• Jefferson, Thomas. Thomas Jefferson: Writings (LOA #17): Autobiography / Notes on the State of Virginia / Public and Private Papers / Addresses / Letters. Library of America, 1984.

• Steiner, Rudolf. Towards Social Renewal: Rethinking the Basis of Society. Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999.