Abstract
The discussion on the nation, still proceeding today, commenced with Renan. To this romantic author of Qu’est-ce q’une nation? the nation was a spiritual essence or principle whose leading thread is the commonly inherited memory, the destiny of the community and its will to survive.1
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Literatur
E. Renan, Qu’est-ce qi’une nation, Paris, 1882. It should be noted that the background of the study was the severance of Alsace and Lorrain from France after the war of 1870–71.
J. J. Wiatr, Problematyka narodu z perspektywy nauk politycznych, report at the all-Polish Political Science Conference, Dec. 1967.
This approximates the position of H. Kohn, The Idea of Nationalism, New York, 1960, p. 166.
B. Akzin, State and Nation, London, 1964, p. 95.
H. Kohn, op. cit., p. 15; N. Kolesnickij, Ob etnicheskomigosudarstvennom razvitiyi sredneekovey Germanii VI-XIV vv., Srednive veka 1063, nr. 23, and in Polish literature: J. Bardach, О powstaniu nowoczesnego narodu litewskiego, (Emergence of the Modern Lithuanian Nation), Kwartalnik Historyczny, LXXXIII, vol. 2, 1966.
R. Aron, Paix et Guerre entre les nations, Paris, 1962, p. 297.
From that point of view Pope Alexander VI’s delimitation of the Spanish and Portuguese possessions approximately in 1493 may be considered the progenitor of today’s Brazil.
B. Akzin, op. cit., p. 107.
Naród i panstwo (Nation and State), Kultura i Spoleczenstwo, vol XII, 3, 1968.
Marxism and the National Question, J. V. Stalin, Works, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1953, vol. 2, p. 307.
This is confirmed by the often cited classical examples of Switzerland.
H. C. J. Dnijker and N. H. Frijda, National Character and National Stereotypes, series „Confluence“, Amsterdam, 1960, p. 36. F. Hertz notes the influence of parliament on the shaping of national unity in England, France and Germany. Nationality in History and Politics, London, 1945, p. 211 ff.
E. Barker, National Character, London, 1927, p. 19.
On this topic see R. Schlesinger, Federalism in Central and Eastern Europe, London, 1945, ch. IX.
Proudhon who dealt with the question of federalism many times in his writings devoted a special study to it entitled Du principe fédératif.
It is characteristic that the Parisian Communards who were disciples of Proudhon called themselves „federalists“.
Karl Marx-Friedrich Engels, Briefwechsel, Berlin, 1950, vol. 3, p. 525.
Engels in The Critique of the Erfurt Programme declares his opposition to the „Swisse-rization“ of Germany, i.e., her federalization. He regards it permissible to introduce that form in Great Britain where “ four nations inhabit two islands“, hence turning it into a multi-national state.
J. V. Stalin, Works, (Pol.) op. cit., vol. 3, pp. 25–33.
On the reversal of the position of the Bolshevik Party on the question of federalism see W. Suchecki, Geneza federalismu radzieckiego (The Origin of Soviet Federalism), Warszawa, 1961, ch. II.
S. Ehrlich, Ustroj Zwiazku Radzieckiego (The Social System of the Soviet Union), Warszawa, 1954, p. 171ff.
M. Weiner, The Politics of Scarcity, Public Pressure and Political Response in India, Chicago, 1962, pp. 34, 58, 208, 231.
The Belgian federalists aim to establish a two-member Flemish-Walloon federation.
C. J. Friedrich calls attention to the difficulty of introducing such a differentiation in Constitutional Government and Democracy. Theory and Practice in Europe and America, New York-London, 1950, p. 190. See also his report at the Oxford Round Table Conference: Federalism, National and International in Theory and Practice, 1963 (mimeographed) in which federalism is treated as a dynamic process. M. Duverger sees only a difference in degree between decentralization and federation. See his Droit constitutionnel et institutions politiques, Paris, 1955, p. 74.
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© 1971 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Ehrlich, S. (1971). State and Nation. In: von Beyme, K. (eds) Theory and Politics / Theorie und Politik. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-1063-9_24
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