The Postnational Constellation summary paper

Continental Political Theory
The Postnational Constellation
Terese Howard
11/11/09

In The Postnational Constellation, Jurgen Habermas lays bare the relationship between the nation-state, democracy, and globalization. The future of democracy, as based on “the assumption that the unified citizens of a democratic community are able to shape their own social environment and can develop the capacity for action necessary for such interventions to succeed” (60), is placed under question in light of the power of globalization in braking down the nation-state, which is the foundation for democracy. Habermas states,
“Under the pressure of de-nationalization, societies constituted as nation-states are ‘opening’ themselves to an economically driven world economy. What interests me is the desirability,…and possibility of a renewed political ‘closure’ of this global society. What would a political response to the challenges of the postnational constellation look like?” (61)
In particular, he addresses this response through responses to the growth of the European Union. Ultimately, social issues, “the tensions, contradictions, and ambiguities that arise from the realization of the ideals of freedom and equality” (59), are considered central to any possibility for global democracy – even be it a postnational democracy.

Habermas explains that “the construction of the democratic process within the nation-state form can be schematically analyzed under four aspects” (62) These can be summarized as the tie between economy and state, the territorial principle, national collective identity, and social and legal ties to political authority. I will address each of these briefly.

The tie between the economy and the state draws the processes of capitalism together with those of democracy. The state and the economic sphere are dependent on each other in that “One the one hand, the most important regulatory powers of public administration remains reserved for the state, which maintains a monopoly on the legitimate use of force. On the other hand, a functionally specified public administrative power – the state’s power to level taxes depends on resources generated by economic activity delegated to the private sphere” (63). The private control of the markets ultimately has a level of control over the state as well because it is through the resources produced in those markets that the state is funded by taxes. If the market is low taxes will be affected. If the markets are no longer dominated by the markets of the nation-state receiving taxes, as is happening with the globalization of the world markets, the nation-state becomes dependant or the global market and losses direct taxes from their own countries market.

The territorial principle sets a physically boundary for the nation-state. It is the principle that a nation-state begins and ends, has an inside and an outside. Hamermas explains, “The territorial principle, furthermore, underlies the separation of international relations from the sphere of state sovereignty” (64). It separates one nation from another via the sovereignty of each nation over a distinct space. Through this principle, the democratic process is tied to the locality of its members – that is, members are tied to their locality, and thus a boundary is set on the “self-control” of the nation. Because “the ‘self control’ of society presupposes a well-defined ‘self’ of an appropriate magnitude”(63), territory is needed to give that self a specific definition. As the territorial boundaries of nation-states blurs through globalization, the self controlling power of a specific territorially defined people fades away and democracy with it. Without some degree of locality the processes of democracy become well nigh impossible.

The nation means little without the presence of collective national identity. Habermas explains, “The political mobilization of ‘subjects’…depends on a prior cultural integration of what is initially a number of people who have been thrown together with each other” (64). This cultural integration is the conditions for creating “a people” instead of just people together. It is the sense of unity that makes it possible for democracy to exist, for democracy requires that people are willing to give up things for others in their nation. Taxation only works because people have a national identity that is shared with others and thus enables sharing of other kinds. It is not necessarily out of good heartedness that people give to fellow citizens, but out of the tie of the national identity. As people cross more and more national borders and become less and less tied to their nation as a home base, it becomes harder to maintain a national identity. Without this democracy’s bond is weakened.

The last of the four conditions of democracy in the nation-state has to do with the tie between social issues and political authority. As stated earlier, society exists as and in the tensions of freedom and equality. Social issues, such as equal opportunities for all races, genders, or class struggles for pay or opportunities, serve as the legitimation for political authority. Authority is given via democracy to leaders who can create this equalization and freedomization. Social democracy “transforms the rights of ‘subjects’ into the rights of human beings and citizens” (65). In this way, human rights are tied to their citizenship in a nation. A right is something that a democratic country can approve, enforce, and ultimately give reality. Rights are a form of law. As the nation-state is overtaken by globalization the power, or reality, of rights is called into question. There are too many powers involved globally for rights to exist as a purely national force. Global markets, travel, and such make rights hard to enforce or even have the vigor of nationally identified realities. In spite of the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights it remains a challenge to have global peoples recognition of the same rights which would thus create the drive for global democracy.

Habermas, Jurgen The Postnational Constellation The MIT Press: Cambridge, 2001.