Between Facts and Norms - Contributions to a ... - Blogs Unpad

493-·-------· -·· .. ------ ·····---Citizenship and National IdentityCommunity to a political union, disintegrating. This is confirmedby a glance back at its genesis in early modernity.In modern Europe, the premodern form of empire that used tounite numerous peoples remained rather unstable, as shown in thecases of the Holy Roman Empire or the Russian and Ottomanempires. A second, federal form of state emerged from the belt ofCentral European cities. It was above all in Switzerland that afederation developed that was strong enough to balance the ethnictensions within a multicultural association of citizens. But it wasonly the third form, the ceqtrally administered territorial state, thatcame to have a lasting formative effect on the structure of theEuropean system of states. It first emerged-as in Portugal, Spain,France, England, and Sweden-from kingdoms. Later, as democratizationproceeded along the lines of the French example, it·developed into the nation-state. This state formation secured theboundary conditions under which the capitalist economic systemcould develop worldwide. That is, the nation-state provided theinfrastructure for an administration disciplined by the rule of law,and it guaranteed a realm of individual and collective action freeof state interference. Moreover-and this is what primarily interestsus here-it laid the foundation for the ethnic and culturalhomogeneity that made it possible, beginning in the late eighteenthcentury, to forge ahead with the democratization of government,albeit at the cost of excluding and oppressing minorities.Nation-state and democracy are twins born of the French Revolution.From a cultural point of view, they both stand under theshadow of nationalism.This national consciousness is a specifically modern manifestationof cultural integration. The political consciousness of nationalmembership arises from a dynamic that first took hold of thepopulation after processes of economic and social modernizationhad torn people from their places in the social hierarchy, simultaneouslymobilizing and isolating them as individuals. Nationalismis a form of consciousness that presupposes an appropriation,filtered by historiography and reflection, of cultural traditions.Originating in an educated bourgeois public, it spreads throughthe channels of modern mass communication. Both elements, itsliterary mediation and its dissemination through public media,