Craig HillThe importance of nation states
October 31st 2006 08:59
This piece is based largely on thr work of Roger Scruton. See belwo for references.
Worldwide there is a growing trend for disadvantaged people to leave dysfunctional and failing countries and to emigrate towards prosperous, stable, democratic nation states. This phenomenon is hardly surprising as, above all else, people value civil peace and good governance. A well-ordered society is a rare and valuable thing and historically has proved very difficult to achieve. The democratic nation state has proved itself to be the most successful form of political entity to ensure peaceful relations between citizens, but in Europe its sovereignty is being threatened by transnational bodies such as the UN, the EU and even the WHO. This trend has the potential to destabilise many European countries and ought to be resisted. The following passage illustrates this point with a recent example from the UK.
Thousands of people claiming gypsy or "traveller" status have recently emigrated from Ireland, where strictly enforced legislation confines gypsy parks to places where they will not threaten the amenities of other residents. Incoming gypsies approach impoverished English farmers in order to buy land scheduled for agricultural use. They take possession, scrape away topsoil, put down concrete, and install the infrastructure required for an American-style trailer park. The council serves a planning contravention notice and, thanks to the Human Rights aspect, the subsequent legal battle can be fought through court after court, to the point where eviction becomes difficult or impossible. In one instance, at the village of Cottenham near Cambridge, the incomers have achieved a population of 800, creating unmanageable problems of waste, noise, pollution and crime, and an all but unmanageable source of social conflict. Over 1,000 residents staged a protest and refused to pay their council tax until the problem was addressed. Local residents have obeyed planning regulations in the expectation that these regulations will be impartially enforced. They have typically put all their savings into their home, knowing that its value will reflect their work and the amenities safeguarded by the law. Overnight, therefore, their savings are wiped out, since no one will buy a house adjacent to a gypsy site. Planning regulations are a vital aspect of the social fabric as they safeguard investments, but they cannot be easily enforced against gypsies. Who claim their "human rights", trumping the merely conventional rights offered by the laws on planning.
The primary role of government is to ensure civil peace with the borders of its own country and civil peace prevails when the people in a certain territory have a collective sense of belonging together. If people who live cheek by jowl have a sense of neighbourliness towards one another they are more likely to live peaceably. Historically we can identify three main types of body politic with which people associate themselves: the tribal community, the creed community and the nation state. Tribal communities define themselves by blood ties alone. One cannot enter or leave them except by birth or death. Creed communities defined themselves by faith. Those who have right belief and who follow the prescribed rituals belong to the creed community. All others are strangers to be converted or opposed. The nation state defines itself through associating with the land. Those citizens who obey the laws of the land and who feel an association with the symbols, culture and institutions of the territory are members of the nation. Citizens who identify themselves in this way live side by side with strangers and treat them as neighbours.
Civil peace only prevails when people willingly obey the law. Obedience to the law cannot be enforced. The Soviet Union tried to enforce obedience through a brutal regime of fear and mutual distrust between neighbours but ultimately failed. However, citizens will only willingly obey the law if it has certain attributes. There must be one law for all. Citizens rich and poor, powerful and humble, sophisticated and rustic must be governed by the same law of the land. The citizens must also have a legitimate means of modifying the law and they need to feel a sense of shared ownership of the law. This occurs when the law has grown organically over centuries as a society establishes itself in its homeland. National governments have the ability to develop these attributes in the law of the land and therefore are able to attract the allegiance of their citizens. They are answerable to their people for the laws they pass. They are elected by their people who therefore feel a sense of connection to and affinity with them.
In contrast to this, transnational governmental bodies such as the UN and EU are appointed not elected, they are not accountable for their laws, they are not answerable to those who must obey them, they are not burdened with the duty of implementing the laws they pass and therefore tend to be theoretical rather than practically connected with the populations they seek to govern.
When a populace has its national governance usurped and are forced to obey laws they had no say in formulating and which are administered by an unaccountable body they feel alienated from the political process and eventually refuse to obey the law.
The potential of anarchy then arises. We have seen examples of this recently in 2005 when, during two weeks of rioting, 4,551 vehicles were torched and police arrested nearly 3,000 people.
Rather then experimenting with untested transnational governance of European nations legislators would be much better advised to rely on the organic growth of the nation state to ensure the lasting peace and stability of the region.
Further Reading
1) Scruton, R., The Need for Nations, Civitas, 2006.
2) Scruton R., The West and the Rest, Continuum, 2005.
3) Rabkin, J., The Case for Sovereignty: Why the World Should Welcome American Independence, AEI Press; 2004.
Worldwide there is a growing trend for disadvantaged people to leave dysfunctional and failing countries and to emigrate towards prosperous, stable, democratic nation states. This phenomenon is hardly surprising as, above all else, people value civil peace and good governance. A well-ordered society is a rare and valuable thing and historically has proved very difficult to achieve. The democratic nation state has proved itself to be the most successful form of political entity to ensure peaceful relations between citizens, but in Europe its sovereignty is being threatened by transnational bodies such as the UN, the EU and even the WHO. This trend has the potential to destabilise many European countries and ought to be resisted. The following passage illustrates this point with a recent example from the UK.
Thousands of people claiming gypsy or "traveller" status have recently emigrated from Ireland, where strictly enforced legislation confines gypsy parks to places where they will not threaten the amenities of other residents. Incoming gypsies approach impoverished English farmers in order to buy land scheduled for agricultural use. They take possession, scrape away topsoil, put down concrete, and install the infrastructure required for an American-style trailer park. The council serves a planning contravention notice and, thanks to the Human Rights aspect, the subsequent legal battle can be fought through court after court, to the point where eviction becomes difficult or impossible. In one instance, at the village of Cottenham near Cambridge, the incomers have achieved a population of 800, creating unmanageable problems of waste, noise, pollution and crime, and an all but unmanageable source of social conflict. Over 1,000 residents staged a protest and refused to pay their council tax until the problem was addressed. Local residents have obeyed planning regulations in the expectation that these regulations will be impartially enforced. They have typically put all their savings into their home, knowing that its value will reflect their work and the amenities safeguarded by the law. Overnight, therefore, their savings are wiped out, since no one will buy a house adjacent to a gypsy site. Planning regulations are a vital aspect of the social fabric as they safeguard investments, but they cannot be easily enforced against gypsies. Who claim their "human rights", trumping the merely conventional rights offered by the laws on planning.
The primary role of government is to ensure civil peace with the borders of its own country and civil peace prevails when the people in a certain territory have a collective sense of belonging together. If people who live cheek by jowl have a sense of neighbourliness towards one another they are more likely to live peaceably. Historically we can identify three main types of body politic with which people associate themselves: the tribal community, the creed community and the nation state. Tribal communities define themselves by blood ties alone. One cannot enter or leave them except by birth or death. Creed communities defined themselves by faith. Those who have right belief and who follow the prescribed rituals belong to the creed community. All others are strangers to be converted or opposed. The nation state defines itself through associating with the land. Those citizens who obey the laws of the land and who feel an association with the symbols, culture and institutions of the territory are members of the nation. Citizens who identify themselves in this way live side by side with strangers and treat them as neighbours.
Civil peace only prevails when people willingly obey the law. Obedience to the law cannot be enforced. The Soviet Union tried to enforce obedience through a brutal regime of fear and mutual distrust between neighbours but ultimately failed. However, citizens will only willingly obey the law if it has certain attributes. There must be one law for all. Citizens rich and poor, powerful and humble, sophisticated and rustic must be governed by the same law of the land. The citizens must also have a legitimate means of modifying the law and they need to feel a sense of shared ownership of the law. This occurs when the law has grown organically over centuries as a society establishes itself in its homeland. National governments have the ability to develop these attributes in the law of the land and therefore are able to attract the allegiance of their citizens. They are answerable to their people for the laws they pass. They are elected by their people who therefore feel a sense of connection to and affinity with them.
In contrast to this, transnational governmental bodies such as the UN and EU are appointed not elected, they are not accountable for their laws, they are not answerable to those who must obey them, they are not burdened with the duty of implementing the laws they pass and therefore tend to be theoretical rather than practically connected with the populations they seek to govern.
When a populace has its national governance usurped and are forced to obey laws they had no say in formulating and which are administered by an unaccountable body they feel alienated from the political process and eventually refuse to obey the law.
The potential of anarchy then arises. We have seen examples of this recently in 2005 when, during two weeks of rioting, 4,551 vehicles were torched and police arrested nearly 3,000 people.
Rather then experimenting with untested transnational governance of European nations legislators would be much better advised to rely on the organic growth of the nation state to ensure the lasting peace and stability of the region.
Further Reading
1) Scruton, R., The Need for Nations, Civitas, 2006.
2) Scruton R., The West and the Rest, Continuum, 2005.
3) Rabkin, J., The Case for Sovereignty: Why the World Should Welcome American Independence, AEI Press; 2004.
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