Lectures Flashcards
(13 cards)
What other state systems have we seen?
- Feudalism; system of customary arrangements between lords and vassals, plus church and peasantry
- Empire; donation of lands by a state that has no prior or given sovereignty over those lands
What elements played an important role in the emergence of states?
- economics: rise of capitalism and end of feudal systems
- social and phylosophical changes: enlightenment, mass education
Multi-level governance (dividing sovereignty)
- unitary states; central governments can often replace local governments
- federal states; autonomy of subunits from the central government is constitutionally guaranteed
Define primordialism vs. modernism
Primordialism:
- nations are naturally occuring entities
Modernism:
- Nations are modern entities
- scholarly view of nation
- histories, languages, cultures often regularised through modern processes
In what way does the state make the nation?
- Conscription and military service
- Modern mass education
- National media
what did Benedict anderson say about imagined communities?
- nationalism is the product of mass literacy through print capitalism and the decline of religion
- feeling of connectedness through media, idea of similarities.
Althusser: ideological state apparathuses
Institutions are all ideological state apparathuses, reproducing the conditions of the capitalist state
What is Banal nationalism
- daily reproduction of a ‘whole complex of beliefs, assumptions or habits, etc. that reinforce the concept of the nation in a banally mundane way
- When a dutch person talks about the PM it is clear he is talking about the Dutch PM without specifying this
What is commercial nationalism ?
- producers often use attachment to the nation for sales techniques
- intertwine product with national history or culture
- weetabix example
What is welfare?
- support for the unemployed, elderly, ill, disabled, parents, veterans (state and private provision)
- Different meanings in different national contexts
What is the difference between codified constitution and non-codified constitution?
Non-Codified:
- Constitutional principles are contained across number of laws, conventions and legal instruments
- idea that constitution is flexible and adaptable
Codified:
- major constitutional provisions contained in single document
- BUT not a completely clear dichotomy; constitutional provisions appear outside the original document and practices are modified over time
What are the essential functions of democratic constitution?
- establishes organs of government
- enumerates basic rights of citizens
- Confirms popular sovereignty
What are cultural aspects of constitutions?
- can reflect values and history
- can be used to unite or divide
