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is obsolete (Wallace, 1997, 25).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.
|
