Arendt Summary

Hannah  Arendt  discusses  this  period  in  terms  of  what  she  calls  `the  decline  of  the  nation‐state'. She  argued  that  after  the  First  World  War  there  was  accompanied  in  a  new  principle  of  the  nation  state,  which  tilted  the  balance  between  `nation'  and  `state'  sharply  toward  the  `nation'  pole.  In  its  civic  form  it  was  the  state  that  defined  the  nation  –  not  according  to criteria of  ethnicity, language, culture, religion, history, destiny, etc. but by virtue of common citizenship in a shared  political  community.  In  its  ethnic  mode  the  nation  defined  according  to  common  culture  or  language  or  religion or blood, defined the state

The  regression  from  a  right‐based  civic  nationalism  to  ethnic  nationalism  began  with  the  nationalist fervour that arose during the First World War and ended with the rise of Nazism. Its starting point was the  political  collapse  of  the  great  multi‐national empires such as the Ottoman empire which dominated central and eastern Europe, coupled with the social explosion of mass unemployment which sowed untold misery. The disappearance  of  the  central  despotic  bureaucracies  of  the  old  Empires  (Austro‐Hungarian,  Ottoman,  Russian  and  Prussian)  and  the  common  focus  they  provided  for  the  anger  of  the  oppressed  nationalities  led  to  the  evaporation  of  the  last  remnants  of  solidarity  between  formerly  subject  nations.  Now  everybody  was  against  everybody  else  and  most  of  all  against  their  closest  neighbours:  Slovaks  against  Czechs,  Croats  against  Serbs,  Ukrainians  against  Poles,  all  against  Jews.  From  the  standpoint  of  Western  powers,  these  conflicts  looked  like  petty  nationalist  quarrels  in  an  old  trouble  spot,  the  Balkans,  without  further  consequence  for  the  political  destinies  of  Europe.  In  reality  they  heralded  a  wider  collapse  of  human  rights and democracy.  

The right of national self determination became the crucial mediation in the process of democratization.  Even  the  treaties  guaranteeing  the  rights  of  minorities  had  the  effect  of  declaring  that  only  `nationals'  could be full citizens and people of different nationality needed some law of exception. Once established  within  the  `belt  of  mixed  populations'  of  Central  Europe,  the  nationalist  principle  of  the  state  spread  throughout  Europe.  Millions  were  denationalized  by  post‐war  governments,  driven  from  their  homes,  turned into refugees, and confronted by a disappearing right of asylum abroad and repatriation at home.  Exclusion  was  everywhere  and  it  plumbed  new  depths  in  Nazi  Germany.  It  first  distinguished  legally  between  full  Reich  citizens  and  `nationals'  without  political  rights,  and  then  deprived  all  those  of  `alien  blood' of their civil as well as political rights. In 1938 the German Reich declared that all children of Jews,  Jews of mixed blood or persons of otherwise alien blood' were no longer `nationals'.