Nationalism Lecture 12: Beyond nationalism? The case of European integration Prof. Lars-Erik Cederman Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS) Seilergraben 49, Room G.2 Assistant: Kimberly Sims, CIS, Room E 3,

Nationalism beyond the nation-state: Supranational Integration Concepts Theory families Democracy in the European Union

Tree historical situations States present? Nations present? No Yes No Yes Territorial States Nation- States “Middle Ages” Toward neo- Medievalism?

Concepts Essentialism vs. Constructivism Second dimension: viability of political integration defined in terms of: –policy –institutions –identity: retention or supersession?

Four theory families Essentialism Constructivism Retention Supersession Ethno- nationalism Pan- nationalism Bounded integration Post- nationalism Approach to supra- national integration Assumption about identity-formation

Ethno-nationalism Essentialist, culture-driven logic Rejection of supranationalist identities as artificial, lacking historical depth Not clear what European culture stands for Thus, the nation-state will remain the main locus of identity See A. D. Smith

Post-Nationalism Constructivist-instrumentalist principles Politics driven by material conditions, and because of technological development, the scale of political identities grows De-coupling of politics and “deep” culture, toward a “thin” political culture Habermas’ “constitutional patriotism” Goal: European or cosmopolitan integration Jürgen Habermas

Bounded integration Constructivist-institutionalist principles Identities “sticky” Reciprocal link between politics and culture sustained by institutions Nation-state is a stable historical equilibrium (cf. Gellner, Anderson etc.) Thus, supranationalist identity- formation is difficult Benedict Anderson Ernest Gellner

Pan-Europeanism Romantic movement dating back to interwar period (Coudenhove-Kalergi, de Rougemont) Myth of European culture Search for “other” Cultural projects of European Commission Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi

Democracy beyond the nation-state? The democratic deficit of the European Union The “demos” is the popular unit of people voting in a democracy Key assumptions: –Historical priority of demos and democracy –Nature of demos

Ethno-Nationalism nation as cultural, bounded demos democracy “primacy of demos”

Post-Nationalism: Civic Voluntarism thin, non-cultural, unbounded demos democratic practice “primacy of democratic practice” constitution

Bounded Integration partly cultural, bounded demos democracy “tandem hypothesis” identity- building institutions

Institutional mechanisms of identity-formation External –warfare –other exchanges Internal –Mass media –Education –Language policy