FROM
NATION STATE
TO SUPRANATIONAL GOVERNANCE
Professor Maurizio
Cotta (Siena
University)
The
purpose of the course is to discuss the transition under way in Europe from a
situation where Nation States were the dominant form of polity to the new one
where Nation States are included into an increasingly significant system of
supranational governance. The meanings of the two concepts of State and Nation
and the problems involved in their use in empirical analysis; how the national
and the etatist elements have combined into a specific form of polity; what is
the relationship of the nation state with democracy; strength and weaknesses of
this type of polity; reasons for the decline of nation states in the European
setting; the nature of the new forms of European governance and their impact
upon national politics are some of the topics that will be discussed in this
course
Course
requirements:
students are expected to read the texts suggested and to participate actively in
the discussions. The evaluation will be based on oral presentations, general
participation to discussions and a written paper to be handed by June 15.
March
6
Course
presentation. The three dimensions
of political life: politics, polity, policy and their relationships.
March
13
The
sovereign nation-state as the dominant form of polity of the contemporary era
compared to other polity forms (pre-state and post-state) (civitas, respublica,
commonwealth, hansa, regnum, dynastic union, empire, supra-national union,
confederation, etc.). Usage and meanings of the word state. Horizontal and
vertical components of the concept. Different approaches to the analysis of the
state. The legal point of view (internal
and external). The philosophical point of view.
The politological point of view. Defining
features.
Readings:
M. Weber, Economy and Society , P.
Schiera, Stato moderno, in Bobbio,
Matteucci e Pasquino (a cura di), Dizionario
di Politica; G. Poggi, Stato, in
Enciclopedia delle Scienze Sociali, Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana, Roma.
March
20
Why
the concept of State disappeared from contemporary political science (especially
in the US) and then made a comeback ?
Readings:
P. Nettl, The State as a conceptual variable, in “World Politics”, vol. 20
(1968) pp.559-592; T. Mitchell, The Limits
of the State: beyond statist approaches and their critics, in “American
Political Science Review”, vol. 85 (1991), 77-85
March
27
The
process of state building. Overcoming the resistance of previous political
institutions. “Engine” and instruments of state-building (dynastic power,
army, bureaucracy, tax collection, legal system, etc.). Internal (resources of
the centre; force of challengers; etc.) and external conditions (exposure to
international competition, etc.) . Polity and Politics.
Conflicts and problems.
Readings:
N. Elias, Potere e civiltà, cap. 3,
especially pp. 144-160 (it.edition) (il
meccanismo della monopolizzazione) e 215-265 (formazione del meccanismo monarchico); O, Hintze, Military
organization and the Organization of the State, in F. Gilbert,
The historical essays of O. Hintze;
Ch. Tilly, Reflections on the History of
European State-making, in Tilly (ed.) The
Formation of National States in Western Europe, Princeton, Princeton
University Press, 1975.
April
3
What
is a nation ? Different
interpretations of the concept: cultural/political;
natural/artificial; old/modern. Nation and ethnicity. Explanations of the
birth of nation and nationalism. The politics of
nation. States in search of a nation.
Nations in search of a
state.
Basic
Readings: E. Renan, What is a Nation
?; E. Gellner, Nations and Nationalism, Oxford
1983; A. D. Smith, The
ethnic origins of nations, Oxford 1986; B. Anderson, Imagined
communities, New York, Verso 1991.
April
10
State-building,
nation building and democracy. What are the relationships between building of
the state and development of the nation. How democracy, its establishment and
consolidation are affected by the processes of state- and nation-building.
Basic
readings: O. Hintze, The
pre-conditions of Representative Government in the context of world history
in F. Gilbert, The
historical essays of O. Hintze , S. Rokkan, Nation-building,
Cleavage formation and the Structuring of Mass Politics, in Rokkan, Citizens,
Elections Parties, Universitetsforlkaget, Oslo, 1970.
April
17
Holiday No lecture
April
24
The
world of nation-states and its problems. The concept of sovereignty in its
internal and external dimensions. The failure of the European system of
nation-states.
Basic
readings: K. Waltz, Theory
of International Politics, New York, Random House, 1979; S. D. Krasner, Sovereignty:
Organised Hypocrisy, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1999.
May
1
Holiday No lecture
May
8
Europe
post WWII: beyond the sovereign nation-state or resurgence of the nation-state ?
The nation states within the framework of a new international order.
Readings:
Milward, The
European rescue of the Nation State, London, Routledge, 1993,
S. Hoffman, Obstinate or obsolete: the fate of the Nation State and the case of
Western Europe, in Daedalus, 95 (1966), 892-908; Krasner (ed.) International
regimes, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1989;
E. Haas, Beyond the nation-state,
Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1964
May
15
Models
of European governance
Readings
:
Majone,
G. , The Rise of the Regulatory State in
Europe, West European Politics, 17/3 (1994);
Marks,
G. et al, European
Integration from the 1980s: State centric vs. Multi-level Governance, in
Journal of Common Market Studies, 34/3 (1996)
Models
of European governance (continuation)
Readings: P. Pierson, The Path to
European Integration , in Comparative
Political Studies, 29/2 (1996); W. Sandholtz and A. Stone Sweet, European
Integration and supranational governance, Oxford, Oxford University Press,
1998; B. Kohler-Koch and R. Eising (eds.) The
transformation of governance in the European Union, London Routledge, 1999
May
29
Nation
states and supranational governance: opportunities and constraints, benefits and
costs for the domestic politics of member states
Readings:
M. Cotta, Domestic elites reactions
to the
transformations of the
“european polity”:
preliminary
reflections on a research
agenda,
Working paper 2000; F. Sharpf, Governare
l’Europa, Bologna, Il Mulino 1999; M. Ferrera, Integrazione europea e sovranità sociale dello stato-nazione: dilemmi e
prospettive in “Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica” 30 (2000)
June
5