Re: The Right of Nations to Self Determi

[om@xxxxxxxxx]

On 4 Aug 1995, John D. Walker

>> I don't understand this "right of nations to self-determination". What is
>> a nation but a bourgeois reification. The workers have no nation.
>>
>
>Roderick,
>
>Perhaps this alleged right bothers you because you're thinking of
>"nations" as political entities. I think people in political theory used
>to distinguish more carefully than they do now between states (political
>entities) and nations (cultural entities, I believe).
>
>If we make this distinction, the right in question becomes the right of
>people to self determination.  And surely *that's* something we can all
>support, eh?

 Right! ...and, ideally, a state is what a nation invents to formalize and
protect its Right to Self Determination. In the world, there are around 900
ethnic minorities, "nations". It is interesting to compare that to the
number of states, which is around 200 - and decreasing!


Comments anybody?

Otto Medin


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