Solar plant near Las Vegas in Mojave Desert, California (ADLC/Shutterstock.com).Prospects for the Democratic Nation-State: What State Are We In?
The modern nation-state is so familiar to us as a political form that it seems an obvious way of organizing individuals into larger societies. We take it to be, if not the only form conceivable, at least the clear default solution to the problem, inherent in the human condition, of reconciling the necessity of order and authority with some scope of freedom for individuals and for non-coercive associations. And so it comes as a surprise, even a bewildering surprise to us to recognize the internal contradictions that beset, or even the downright mystery that surrounds, the modern political form par…
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Mankind is not easily rid of theology once it gets the bug. The nation-state tried to erase the distinction between earthly power and absolute right, but the attempt failed, with the result that the modern nation-state, its professed secularism notwithstanding, is once more coming under the tutelage of a clerisy. Almost since its beginning the nation-state…
Ralph Hancock begins his interesting essay[i] be reminding us that, despite its internal contradictions and failures, the modern state has become the only conceivable political form in our post-modern world. This should be puzzling since the record is far from being a convincing successful story. At its best, the modern state has allowed us to…
