Politics Essays

Politics Essays: Europe and The Nation State

Excerpt from: ‘Is there a Crisis of the Nation State in Europe?’

It would appear to be the case that whether or not one adopts the view that there is a crisis of the nation-state, brought about as a result of European integration, depends largely on if the neo-functional or intergovernmental perspective is adopted as the philosophical underpinning of European integration.

In fact, evidence suggests that the presence of such conflicting views on the status of the European state in the contemporary world is an expected outcome of the attempt to reap the benefit of integration and, simultaneously, retain as much sovereignty as possible.

Moreover, the diverging conclusions are also pivotal in respect of the nation; if one adheres to the view that the state is indeed becoming impotent, there is the fear that the nation is becoming separated from the state and the consequences thereof.

It seems to be the case that a greater or lesser extent of sovereignty has been ceded to the centre, but if this signifies a weakening, or indeed crisis, of the nation-state needs to be examined.

At a general level, this relates to whether or not sovereignty is being relinquished and therefore lost, or if it has been pooled, suggesting a degree of government control of the process.

Whereas functionalists view the loss of sovereign powers as a gradual move towards federalism, in which case the individual nation-states in Europe are under threat, others such as neo-realism’s Alan Milward considers it a means by which to strengthen the state; the latter stresses the structural resilience of the nation-state and adopts the view that further strengthening could be achieved by sharing certain elements of sovereignty to common advantage (Anderson, 1997, 53), creating, in effect, a cartel of national authorities.

Underlying these perceptions is divergent ideas on what the nation-state is and what constitutes sovereign powers; nationalists such as Margaret Thatcher and Charles de Gaulle felt that the state was organic, a natural and permanent framework for political life; from this standpoint, therefore, formal integration is indeed a threat.

Poul Schluter and others offer a counter-view, whereby the modern nation-state is seen as the creation of earlier social, political and economic forms of integration; thus, it is a product of modernisation which may now be evolving to an extent where the concept of an autonomous nation-state is obsolete (Wallace, 1997, 25).

Indeed, post-modernists feel that all history is invented, which suggests that the nation-state is an artificial construct that can be disinvented or altered.

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