| Review of: | Statehood Before and Beyond Ethnicity: Minor States in Northern and Eastern Europe, 1600-2000 edited by Linas Eriksonas, Leos Müller |
|---|---|
| Reviewed By: | Zlatko Skrbis |
| Reviewed in: | Nations and Nationalism |
| Date accepted online: | 02/11/2007 |
| Published in print: | Volume 13, Issue 03, Pages 539-559 |
Book Reviews
The complex relationship between state, ethnicity and nation is one of the key sources of debates in studies of nationalism, and one that generates much controversy. This edited volume, which brings together papers presented at the conference on 'Statehood Beyond Ethnicity', organised at Södertörn University College in Stockholm in 2003, contributes to this body of literature.
The volume's fundamental premise is a critique and challenge of liberal political theories, which see the contemporary nation-state as based upon a close alignment between a dominant nationality and the state. In contrast, the editors' assert that statehood and nationhood are, in principle, unrelated to each other. In their view, nationhood is simply 'a matter of politics' and they suggest that statehood should be analysed as a phenomenon divorced from discussions of ethnicity. Consistent with this view, the contributors to the volume have been encouraged to explore 'what is non-ethnic about statehood', and to think about 'statehood before and beyond ethnicity'. The contributors were also asked to 'remove ethnic clichés' and to fundamentally de-ethnicise statehood. The conceptual framework for the book was inspired by two additional issues: the general emphasis on relatively small states that have not received much attention in the scholarly literature (with some exceptions, such as Sweden and the Netherlands) and debates on the state as a fiscal-military state.
The eighteen contributions to the volume are divided chronologically into two parts. In the first part, contributions are typically focused upon the early modern state and ways in which the state derived legitimacy during this period. The second part places emphasis on national movements, with considerable emphasis on nineteenth-century movements.
The book has a distinctly historical and historiographical flavour and most of the contributions provide a thorough insight into the case studies under consideration. Nevertheless, I believe that the book, despite its strengths and the importance of the questions it raises, falls short on delivering its original promise. I will outline my objections by making two points.
First, the proposition that nationhood needs to be abstracted from, and explored without 'ethnic clichés' is as problematic as it is radical. The editors' ambition, at least judging from the wording in the introduction to the volume, is rather uncompromisingly dismissive of ethnic clichés. This is quite unnecessary in my view. A more rewarding approach would have been to invite contributors to engage with the proponents of alternative theories that emphasise the links between statehood and nationhood, and to bring the shortcomings of these theories to the fore in the context of their chosen case studies. Instead, most of the chapters focus on the historical detail without probing the theoretical alternatives they are supposed to critique and without returning to the overarching framework concerning de-ethnicisation of statehood. This makes for a conceptually disjointed reading that could have been improved by more assertive editorial interventions. More importantly, from the point of view of the consistency of the volume's framework, Miroslav Hroch in his chapter implicitly critiques the 'conceptual points of departure' of this book by stating that it is 'almost impossible to isolate ethnicity and political life in the early modern period'. He lists Poland and Hungary as two possible exceptions where non-ethnic statehood is possible, but his charge more or less explicitly contradicts the basic conceptual premise of the volume. Kaufman, in his chapter on national ethnicity and the modern state, makes a similar point. He argues that traditions of statehood and ethnicity must not be separated but are intrinsically constitutive of one another, and that ethnic identities are highly effective in binding the citizens of a multi-ethnic polity. Similarly, in a chapter on the Polish national movement, Remi strongly asserts the importance of ethnicity, not only in Polish romantic nationalism but in its links with historical statehood as well. All these various implicit and explicit criticisms of the conceptual premises of the volume do not go unnoticed by the editors and they ultimately recognise that 'ethnic arguments appeared very early in the shaping of early modern states, but were not an inherent part of the state's being'. Despite this reflexive recognition of the shortcomings of the book's conceptual premise, the internal contradictions of the volume could have been more thoroughly tied together.
Second, the sub-title of the volume, 'Minor states in Northern and Eastern Europe, 1600-2000', is indicative of the ambition to provide space for discussion of small states in a particular geographical locale, yet the editors have not been completely consistent with the selection of contributions. For example, Pelgrom's interesting and useful chapter on the Lombard League in Northern Italy sits uncomfortably within the geographical delimitations defined in the subtitle. Italy cannot easily be defined as either a Northern or an Eastern European state.
Despite these limitations, the volume brings together a number of very interesting, well-researched and rich essays. They have qualities that make this book a useful addition to existing scholarship and will be particularly important to those probing the historical dimensions of nation-building in Europe.