Disentangling the Nation-State: Medieval Models for Rethinking Nations and Polities
| dc.contributor.advisor | Fumurescu, Alin | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Choi, Naomi | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Vaughn, Sally N. | |
| dc.creator | Schoen, Anna Marisa | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-07-15T04:16:38Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-07-15T04:16:38Z | |
| dc.date.created | May 2016 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2016-05 | |
| dc.date.submitted | May 2016 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2021-07-15T04:16:39Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | In the twenty-first century the nation-state has become the fundamental ordering principle of the world and deeply permeates our thinking and talking about politics. This thesis has two principal objectives: to show that the nation-state and the underlying notion of the sovereign national community is insufficient and limiting as a category for political organization and identification today, especially in Europe; and to disentangle nation and state by introducing the medieval understanding of the nation as an alternative in the European discourse on nations, polities, and identities. I show that before 1100 medieval nations formed on the basis of shared language, customs, laws, and/or imagined descent, but – critically – that these communities neither constituted a jurisdictional unit nor coincided with political borders. Today this medieval understanding of the nation would aide us conceiving more realistic and durable approaches to multiculturalism, immigration, political integration, and globalization. I supplement my analysis with two additional medieval concepts – the corporate vision of community and the dialectic of the individual – to illustrate how unity, cohesion, and loyalty can be fostered when national solidarities do not undergird political community, and how individuals can accommodate the different identities that result from the disentangling of nation and state. | |
| dc.description.department | Political Science, Department of | |
| dc.format.digitalOrigin | born digital | |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10657/7886 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.rights | The author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s). | |
| dc.subject | nations | |
| dc.subject | states | |
| dc.subject | Europe | |
| dc.subject | medieval | |
| dc.subject | nation-states | |
| dc.title | Disentangling the Nation-State: Medieval Models for Rethinking Nations and Polities | |
| dc.type.dcmi | Text | |
| dc.type.genre | Thesis | |
| thesis.degree.college | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences | |
| thesis.degree.department | Political Science, Department of | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Political Science | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Houston | |
| thesis.degree.level | Masters | |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Arts |