Book Review: George Schoepflin, Nations, Identity, Power
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Subject: Book Review: George Schoepflin, Nations, Identity, Power
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Original sender: Stefan Wolff <[email protected]>
Book Review: George Schoepflin, Nations, Identity, Power
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>From the moderator: See also MINELRES posting of 15 September 2000, at
http://racoon.riga.lv/minelres/archive//09152000-10:55:14-17658.html
Boris
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George Schoepflin, Nations, Identity, Power. The New Politics of
Europe, London, Hurst & Co., 2000, ISBN 1-85065-409-3 (hbk), 40.00,
ISBN 1-85065-410-7 (pbk), 16.50
Reviewed by Stefan Wolff ([email protected]), Department of European
Studies, University of Bath, England, UK
George Schoepflin has presented a collection of new and previously
published essays in which he examines the relationship between
ethnicity, state and civil society. His basic argument is that
democracy is built on all three of these dimensions (p. 6), and that
only a balanced relationship between them can guarantee the proper
functioning of democratic systems. Implied in this is the critique not
only of Marxism, but also of liberalism, or more precisely of what
Schoepflin terms the Anglo-Saxon universalist (p. 8) approach to the
analysis of phenomena of ethnonationalism, particularly in Central and
Eastern Europe.
Schoepflin's analysis is based upon a number of categories and
concepts taken from a variety of social science disciplines. The first
of these is the assumption that there are certain normal and natural,
or common sense, propositions that each society accepts without
questioning, because, second, these propositions are sacralised.
(p.7). The third concept is cultural reproduction (of communities) and
its significance for social and political processes. The fourth
concept is that of thought-worlds that give rise to particular,
corresponding thought-styles, making communication between the
thought-worlds, if not impossible, at least more difficult than
Enlightenment rationality would lead us to believe. (p.7). Finally,
Schoepflin assumes that we live not only in a concrete and palpable
world of institutions and procedures, but also of symbols and rituals.
(p.8). None of that is necessarily new, but the way in which
Schoepflin brought these categories and concepts together seemed
promising as a basis for a thorough reexamination of our understanding
of the relationship he set out to analyse.
To a large degree, Schoepflin delivers on that promise for what
follows is the testing of his hypothesis against a variety of
individual cases alongside a gradual further development of
theoretical positions. In five parts, the book addresses closely
related issues, beginning with the question What is the Nation?, then
discussing the relationship between ethnicity and cultural
reproduction, before turning to The State, Communism, and
Post-Communism. The chapters in these three parts of the analysis I
found somewhat weaker than what follows when Schpflin discusses
minorities and the ethnic factor. Part of the problem is that, while
the individual chapters are united by a common theme, seven out of
seventeen chapters in the first three parts of the book have been
previously published in media (and for audiences) as different as
Transitions, Nations and Nationalism, and the Brown Journal of
International Affairs, as well as in a number of edited books. Thus,
Schoepflin is not always able to follow all lines of inquiry, to
exemplify all his claims, or to tease out all the details of his case.
At its most extreme, this means that in a chapter entitled Language
and Ethnicity in Central and Eastern Europe (pp. 116-127) the reader
does not learn what Schoepflin's own conception of ethnicity is. It
was equally surprising that part one of the book, entitled What is the
Nation does hardly ever address this key concept directly. However,
this does not mean that Schoepflin does not make important points
along the way and substantiates his argument well. For example, on the
relationship between ethnicity, citizenship, and the state (the key
relationship under investigation), Schoepflin observes the following:
Without citizenship cultural reproduction is endangered, because of
the unpredictability of power, even while without ethnicity consent to
be ruled is hard to establish. And without the state, the framework of
citizenship cannot operate. (p. 43) As noted in the introduction, this
leads Schoepflin to argue that a threefold equilibrium between
citizenship, ethnicity, and the state is a necessary condition for
democracy (p. 43). Throughout the book, he then goes on to outline and
richly exemplify the various failures, and their consequences, that
can occur in the dynamics between the three dimensions.
Further on in his analysis, Schoepflin turns to the question why
ethnicity does not provide the necessary cement by which the polis can
be brought into being (p. 111), and he argues that to expect ethnicity
could fulfil this task is to fundamentally misunderstand what
ethnicity is about. The role and function of ethnicity are aimed at
regulating a different set of problems, those of the uncodified rules
of the game, the implicit conditions of society, the tacit
internalisation of right and wrong and of the bonds of solidarity. (p.
111) This is important for a more thorough and better-founded analysis
of the role ethnicity plays in state failure for reliance on ethnicity
to determine the conduct of politics, a fairly widespread phenomenon
when institutionalisation is weak, turns out to be counterproductive,
in as much as contrary to expectations, the security of the ethnic
group is not guaranteed by ever greater emphasis on its reproduction.
(p. 112 Schoepflin returns to, exemplifies, this key argument
throughout the book, e.g., pp. 166-169, 231-232, 259-260, etc.) The
second half of the book is spent on applying these theoretical
propositions on real situations, primarily on minority issues in the
formerly communist states in Central and Eastern Europe and the
Balkans. Here, Schoepflin is at his best, delivering sharp and
comprehensive analyses enriched by a wealth of empirical material.
More general chapters on ethnic minorities in Central and Eastern
Europe (pp. 231-240) and on those in Southeastern Europe (pp. 253-276)
are complemented by examinations of the impact of the communist era on
minorities (pp. 241-252) and their situation since 1990 (pp. 277-297).
Two chapters on Yugoslavia provide a compelling analysis, as do the
final four chapters that look at the various dynamics involving
Hungary and the Hungarians in Central and Eastern Europe and the
Balkans. Schoepflin retains his firm grip on the analysis, operating
largely within the theoretical framework provided earlier, thus making
his argument for an equilibrium between state, ethnicity, and civil
society overall stronger.
Some minor problems nevertheless remain. Again, it is rather obvious
that many of the individual chapters were conceived as exactly that
free-standing contributions to other publications. Thus, for example,
in chapter 19, Schpflin tells the reader that A brief analysis of the
impact of communism in this context is valuable here. (p. 259) After
having just spent the entire preceding chapter on Minorities under
Communism, this comes as a mild surprise. I also missed a concluding
chapter bringing together the major findings of the analysis and
returning to the key themes of the argument.
Thus, Schoepflin's volume Nations, Identity, and Power remains after
all just a collection of essays, but as such it offers excellent
insights and provides a wealth of thoughtfully analysed material.
--
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