The concept nation-state is a political unit combining the idea of a nation with the authority of a state. The premise is that people respect military power and that is how a state rises to take on nation characteristics making it a nation-state. The idea of a nation is like a plug while the authority of a state is like an electrical outlet. This paper will illustrate the concept of the nation state by using America as an example and Nazi Germany as an exception.
Stoessinger, author of “The Might of Nations”, says that over one hundred sixty nation-states exist today while a century ago there was no such political unit. In nation-states, people are united and support their government. As a result, nation-states are powerful in positive and negative ways.
The idea of a nation is subjective. The government can make wise or unwise decisions but people are still obedient to it. The true test of the unity of a nation can be observed during a war. The obedience of the Germans to the German government during World War I illustrates this. The nation blindly listened to the government as it told them that the war was important to fight, the nation was not aware of how dramatic war can be, and the nation was under the false impression that the war would last days or weeks.
The war they were fighting would result in two wars. World War I and World War II make up a time in our history when a 30-year war was engaged with a 17-year pause in the middle.
A common language and common and interdependent economic patterns are shared by a nation. For example, in America, the nation speaks English and the nation participates in the capitalist system. The capitalist system depends on the fact that the nation will buy products and services as they have more income. The nation has the freedom to spend its income how it chooses. The system slows down when people are reluctant to spend during an economic slowdown or a recession.
National character and the lack of focus on physical boundaries are also part of this idea. An example of national character in America is the pride we have in the American flag while an example of the lack of focus of physical boundaries in America is the fact that two of the fifty states do not border other American states. Another example of the inability to adhere to physical borders is that the Land of David, discussed in the Bible, encompasses eight international physical boundaries.
The nation has a common theory on religion. In America, thetheory rests in the First Amendment in the fact that “congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Nationalism, the sense of a collective destiny through a common past and the vision of a common future, is also part of the idea of a nation. The common past of America lies in our forefathers and the Constitution of the United States which starts as, “We the people…” it is not “We the population” because a population is objective while a people is subjective. The American vision of a common future is one in which our country will continue to be a free nation.
Myths are stories that cannot be verified but instill pride in one’s country resulting in increased nationalism. An example of a myth is former President George Washington throwing a half dollar coin over the Potomac River.
The concept of a state is objective. The form of government, sovereignty, jurisdiction, the particular administration in charge, and voting rights are all part of the concept of the state. In America, the government rests in a representative democracy. Other elements of the state include the military and the police.
The drawing of physical boundaries, the agenda of defending one’s territory and expanding it, and the needs to enact laws to protect the nation are all goals of the state. The state has an interest in controlling the economy and in countries such as Russia, a citizen must fill out paperwork to buy something as simple as an extra roll of toilet paper.
In many instances, the state can be compared to a father and a nation a child. The father can and will punish the child when he or she misbehaves. Often the child regards a parent’s rules as unreasonable or purposefully sets out to break those rules as illustrated in Russia where a black market is able to quench the desires of those who wish to buy cosmetics, sneakers, jeans, and other commodities that are not for sale in the regular market.
The U.S. Federal Government divides its state power among three branches; the executive branch, the judicial branch, and the legislative branch. Each branch has checks and balances with the other two branches to prevent too much power from going into the wrong hands.
The state’s power rests in the willingness of the nation. The U.S.S.R. is a state that attempted to operate without the willingness of the nation and realized the failure in doing so. Although cohesion is a powerful tool a state can use against its nation, the people of the nation must respect the authority of the state to some degree or social unrest will result.
Military objectives are governed by a state that has great resources at its disposal. World War I demonstrated that the state had great economic potential and was willing to employ its assets to military objectives. Reinforcing this willingness was the nation’s willingness to serve the state. Nation-states seemed to feel they had the money since more assets were at the state’s control and assets were in the nation’s hands.
The state convinced the nation that fighting World War I was about honor and patriotism. Honor is collective to the nation and illustrated the dramatic ability of the state to wage war more effectively. Patriotism increased the willingness for the people to produce an army and fight in the war. However, since both honor and patriotism are results of emotion, they often get in the way and prevent a war from ending when it should since both sides are so focused on destroying the enemy.
As a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the state of America convinces its citizens who the enemy is and why the enemy should be destroyed. The enemy has shifted from Osama Bin Laden and the Al Queda terrorist group to Saddam Hussein. The War on Iraq has growing support by the nation of America since the state is convincing the nation through the media that if the nation does not support such a war, than the nation is not patriotic. The nation’s emotions are powerful and it can easily be influenced by the state. In this example, Iraq poses no direct or immediate threat to the United States. The state of America would be the losers in any war when international allies cannot be sought.
A nation should be cautious when planning to start a war, evaluate possible objectives for the war, and have a plan on how to get out of the war in the heat of battle if necessary. Unless a state has a reason to go to war or if national survival is being threatened, war should be avoided.
A state can become a nation-state when it proves it has characteristics of a nation by defending its land through a strong military presence and if the state is able to secure the help of its nation.
The mere twelve-year success of the Nazi Germany regime was the exception to the rule on the concept of a nation state. Nazi Germany regarded the nation as more important than the state. The nation state concept, as illustrated earlier, has equal amounts of both “nation” and “state”.
While nation-states have a dominant state, Nazi Germany had a dominant nation. A dominant state means that the people’s interests are taken into consideration. A dominant nation ensures that the interests of government are taken into consideration. A dominant nation uses propaganda to make the government’s interests the people’s interests.
Adolf Hitler started the National Socialist Political Party in Germany that ascended to power in 1933. He wanted to educate the nation about his ideals regarding a pure Germany. He also wanted to ensure unification of the party and the state by declaring party members exempt from state law, who were then placed under special party law, for all government matters. Since many party members also served government positions, they could appeal to party or state officials in regards to any opposition of Hitler’s ideas.
In order to understand Hitler’s logic regarding the roles of the nation and the state, it is important to look at the three different types of states he believed were in existence.
The first type is a state that acts as a voluntary grouping of people under a governmental power, Hitler explains. This state authority only exists to maintain peace and order in a society and serves no other purpose. Hitler cites the Bavarian People’s Party in Australia and the conservative elements of the Reich as two examples.
The second type is a state that seeks to have a uniform administration and a uniform language. The purpose of the state is simply not just to have authority over its people but also concerns itself of the welfare of its people. This expedient form of government is seen as invincible because of the way it shapes the economic life of its people. An example of this was the liberal democracy in the German bourgeoisie.
The third type, Hitler describes as the weakest group, has poorly defined goals for its people who speak different languages and come from different cultures. The country desires a national language simply as a foundation that would possibly lead to an increased ability to promote nationalization. Hitler would use present-day United States in this example.
His definition of the word “Germanize” was an important component of his party’s propaganda. “Germanize” was defined by many as making someone or something German but he believed that “germanization” can only be applied to soil and never applied to people. He goes on to state that just because one learns and speaks German and votes for the German political party does not make one German. He says that any Germanization is really a de-Germanization. Forcing a universal language on people would bridge differences between different peoples and, according to Hitler, be the beginning of bastardization. Hitler’s theory is that bastardization would degrade the “pureness” of what it means to be German.
“Since nationality or rather race does not happen to lie in language but in the blood, we would only be justified in speaking of a Germanization if by such a process we succeeded in transforming the blood of the subjected people. But this is impossible. Unless a blood mixture brings about a change, which, however, means the lowering of the level of the higher race. (Hitler, 389)
A state should exist as a living organism of nationality, a preserver of the nationality, and the molding force of nationality, according to Hitler. He felt that all rival German parties except Communism failed to provide followers with militant faith, making them weak.
Hitler further defined the state’s purpose in Germany as “the care for the preservation of those racial primal elements which, supplying culture, create the beauty and dignity of a higher humanity. We, as Aryans, are therefore able to imagine a state only to be the living organism of a nationality which not only safeguards the preservation of that nationality, but which, by a further training of its spiritual and ideal abilities, leads it to the highest freedom.” (Hitler, 391)
The state is both a means to an end and serves as a means, according to Hitler. Its end is preserving and advancing a community of physically homogenous people. The means of doing this is by forming a higher human culture existing of a race capable of culture.
Hitler’s main goals were to bring Germans into harmony by winning them over to National Socialism through propaganda and to unify the nation by joining the people and the state resulting in him having the ultimate control of the state.
Hitler viewed the goals of The National Socialist Party and the Volk the same. Party members believed that the public itself could not rule directly or indirectly. They swore eternal allegiance to Hitler and believed that this allegiance would make Germany a more pure nation by overturning and banishing all non-German values. Absolute value was not in the state but in the Volk, which strived toward higher and more perfect forms.
The concept of the state as an organism of the people allowed the state to interfere in every phase of the people’s existence. The state was born out of the need to regulate the community to certain laws and demanded each citizen to live according to those laws.
Other governments might draft a model constitution or plan the most perfect military campaign but both would be worthless unless the people maintained the spirit of the laws or the men in the army had the will to fight. In Nazi Germany, Hitler wanted to create a new life to produce a spirit enabling people to bear arms for their government.
“The decisive changes effected by men in world history had not been brought about by leaders able to convince their followers through reason, but by those capable of winning their unquestioning loyalty and inspiring them with fanatic enthusiasm.” (Rich, 16)
The nation-state concept is one of the most successful forms of government in the world today. The idea of allowing people to indirectly rule proves to be more successful than the idea of using propaganda to convince people of a government’s agenda.
America has proven to be a united country based on the freedoms and civil rights we share even though the country is made up of citizens of different nationalities.
Reference:
- Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1999 edition; 1925 original. Kershaw, Ian. The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation. New York: Edward Arnold. 1989. Rich, Norman. Hitler’s War Aims: Ideology, the Nazi State, and the Course of Expansion. Toronto: W.W, Norton & Company, Inc. 1973. Stoessinger, John G. The Might of Nations: World Politics in Our Time. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc. 1993. Vasillopulous, Christopher. Political Science 140. International Relations. Discussion of Nazi Germany. 12/10/02 2:00pm class.
