The State-nation is a State which coincides with a Nation, i.e. coincidence between a concept of order Identitaire, the feeling of membership, the nation, and a concept of legal order, the existence of a form of Souveraineté and Institution S policies and administrative which exert it, the State.

Creation of a State-nation

There exist two possibilities of creation of a State-nation:

  • Is the State preexists to the nation, and one then seeks to develop a national feeling. This national feeling was reinforced in France in particular by the obligation to use French like Common language in the administrative acts, imposed by François Ier by the Ordonnance of Villers-Cotterêts in 1539, the creation of a school free layman and obligatory by Jules Ferry at the end of the 19th century, the introduction of the Military service, but also the creation of various Symbole S republicans like: Marianne, the national anthem… To note, however, that the concept of nation did not await the years 1880 and the effective arrival of the republicans to the capacity to exist in France: it is enough to go back with the revolutionary wars and the Marseillaise to be convinced some.

  • Is the individuals who recognize themselves of the same nation express their will to live together, while obtaining a State. One will thus speak about a nation-State, in which a group of men having become aware of his national unit gave rise to a State. This was the case in Germany for example.

The Culture and the State-nation

These differences of Perception of the nation allowed France and Germany to assert each one the Alsace and the Lorraine, i.e. to indeed extend their official prerogatives on these Territoire S. for the France, the nation is a desire of living together under the same rules beyond the differences of each one, while for the Germany the nation is before a a whole cohesion, a common Culture: the Language, the religion… That partly explains the differences between right of the French soil and right of German blood in acquisition of nationality. As regards Alsace and Lorraine, these two areas were historically of German culture, but had required, with the Revolution, to belong to France: from where this double claim.

It should be noted that the concept of Culture is perceived in a different way in France and Germany. In France, the Culture indicates more one knowledge " intellectuelle" , within the meaning of the individual scholarship (denying in that the etymology of the intellectual word: interligere, to bind between), that a collective Culture. In Germany, the two directions, individual and collective, are expressed by two distinct words; and (see Culture). One notes indeed in the stories of both Peuple S: in France a tradition of centralization (monarchy), in Germany a capacity more decentralized (princes voters of the empire). The collective direction exists nevertheless in France: the French Culture is perceived by the Touriste S foreigners like an art of living. It is also expressed by literary works, musical, pictorial, etc

Dissociation between State and Nation

One should not however confuse State and Nation :

  • a nation can not be equipped with a State. One can quote like example the Palestinian nation: indeed, this nation has a territory well, of a population, but it does not have an political organization suitable to ensure her full Souveraineté, it has only one territorial authority.

  • a State can include several nations. It was the case of the empire Austro-Hungarian, it is today the case of Turkey which contains on its ground a Turkish nation but also a Kurdish nation. It is also the case of the United Kingdom where English, Welsh, Ecossais and Irishmen of North are different nationalities (in addition represented within the Tournoi of the six nations, Irishmen of North playing in the same team as the players of the Irish Republic) and having capacities following Dévolution S. Or then Canada, which includes/understands the Canadian nation strictly speaking, as well as the Québécois nation and the various nations autochtones.

  • a State can exist without being regarded as a nation. It is frequently the case of the federate States constituting a Fédération. For example, the Swiss cantons and the '' German Länder '' are States but are not nations.

Critical of the theory of the State-nation

  • the theory of the State-nation was disputed, in particular by the federalistic Europeans. The nation is according to this criticism an artificial political construction of the partisans of the centralized State. The nation thus justifies the existence of the State which is not associated any more with the person of the monarch but with an abstract entity. The State-nation would be thus a phase of the political evolution and would have vocation to be exceeded in favor of the European unit then of a world governorship.

  • the theory of the State-nation was also criticized by the Marxiste S. For them, the identity feeling is not within the nation, but within very whole Humanity (see the sentence of Karl Marx: “ I am a citizen of the World ”). While waiting for the disappearance of the States, the Social class dominated must according to them show permanent international solidarity: for example the refusal of the wars. From there, a French workman is, according to them, nearer to a workman of foreign nationality, than of a French leader (“ the workers do not have a fatherland ” - Communist Manifesto).

Random links:Mythographe | Saint-Léonard-of-parks | Elliot Grandin | Worsen Monomotapa | Tertiary sexual character