Social Science Theory and Methodology - Essay Example

? Social Science Theory and Methodology Characteristics of a modern nation The nation refers to a culture group that resides within a political state’s territory. A group of individuals are regarded as a nation if they reside permanently in a given territory; they demonstrate some form of administration or government; there is a common culture binding them together; and they consider themselves as being independent. When a group of people turns out to be a nation, we find that those who were loyal to a tribe or even family should be subjected to new order of politics, and a common literature, and there is the development of a sense of common future (Sinisa, 2006). A state can be described as an autonomous political unit that has complete jurisdiction over its territories as well as over all the people together with the activities that take place within them. However, governments are not usually in a position of exercising this jurisdiction exclusively, but states are in a position of encouraging or even forcing the human activity patterns to adhere to the political map. The constant growth in terms of complexities and size of the societies resulted to people seeking political organization as a first step within their clans on the basis of kinship, and then later in the tribes that composed of several clans, and lastly in the city-states. During the fifteenth century, we find that the city-states slowly started emerging as nation-states. It should be noted that a nation-state is regarded as a form of state that is present to offer a sovereign territory for a giver nation, and its legitimacy is acquired or obtained from that particular function. In the perfect nation-state model, the population is composed of the nation and that only; meaning that the state does not only house it, but also offers protection to it together with its national identity. There was not always the existence of nation-state, and majority of the nation-states that are present are found on the territory that at one time was belonging to another state that was non-national. Their existence came to be at least to some part following the political campaigns that were carried out by the movement of the nationalists (Sinisa, 2006). A good example of a nation is Japan since it has territories that are well defined, government and the people who reside there have a culture that is common. In addition, traditionally, the nation regarded as a good example of a nation-state as well as being the largest of all the nation-states, with a total population of more than one hundred and twenty million people. It should be taken into consideration that Japan as a nation consists of a very small number of the minority groups like the Koreans, the Ryukyu peoples, and the Chinese, and the native Ainu minority in the region of Hokkaido, which is located on the northern parts of the nation. Nevertheless, the Ainu are insignificant in terms of their numbers; that is their difference is not that distinct, even though the culture of Ryukyuan has a very close relationship with that of the Japanese. A good example of a state is Iceland because, even though the inhabitants are related ethnically to the other Scandinavian groups, we find that their national language and culture are only found within Iceland. In addition, the nearest land is very far away, meaning there are no cross-border minorities. The nation-state in the country expresses a common identity of its own people, as it has national symbols, and all in all, the national anthem together with the national flag is usually a wide range of the national emblems (Sinisa, 2006). It actually helps in the promotion of the national identity of Japan in nearly every area of social and cultural life of human beings, from the library at the national level to the national airline. In addition, it tries to establish and ensure the maintenance of a national unity, and at least an internal uniformity that is uniform. There is language policy and national policy that the nation states have for this purpose and the system of education is usually subordinated to this objective. The need for uniformity had positive impacts on the economy because the nation states attempt to bring down or decrease the internal differences in the regional gross domestic product and income in general. Many of them have policies of region for the purpose. Armenia is a good example of a nation-state as the vast majority of the population of Armenia consists of the people who are originally Armenians at around ninety eight percent of the total population, and the remaining percentage consists of some few ethnic minorities. 2. How the United States of America fits the modern nation-state’s criteria and functions a. The United States of America acts as a present day nation-state since it is an autonomous territory because it consists of a group of individuals who want to ensure that they have their own government; in addition, territories refer to geographical areas that are under a sovereign state’s jurisdiction. Sovereignty can be described as the authority of ruling. Territories refer to states’ elements and it is known that the United States of America has fifty states, and maintains borders as well as subdividing her territory for the purposes of governance. The common values that the people of America share, since the formation of the United States in the eighteenth century are that the people of America have not defined themselves by their ethnic, racial or religious affiliation, but by the common beliefs and values that they have in individual autonomy (Sinisa, 2006). Among the common values that the people of the United States share is individualism, whereby all Americans believe that people should be judged by their individual achievement and actions and not their belonging to a particular group. They also believe in the principle of capitalism whereby wealth is owned by individuals and not like other countries whereby the modes of production are owned by the tribe or even community. The government of the United States together with the society is working hard to ensuring that the nation’s common culture is preserved; that is trying to maintain ‘Americanism’ so that its people can be easily identified. The American society also helps in several ways to ensure that sovereignty and common culture is fostered. The people of America have restricted themselves to doing some things that are used in only identifying them and that are associated with Americans only; these include sports, arts and even politics. For instance, hip hop music is synonymous with the people of the United States and even the American Football in the field of sports. b. The United States foreign policy’s objectives The objectives of the foreign policy of the United States include the following: The first one is that main objective is the protection of the physical security of the nation. This is a principal objective of every foreign policy of each nation; however, the United States of America has seen a lot of success in that as compared to any other nation. It is in fact true that since the 1812 War, no foreign military not even a single foreign military has ever attempted the occupation of the continental United States of America. Contrary, the continental Europe’s nations were overrun in two occasions during the twentieth century and again during the nineteenth century. But the state of the security of the nation might be changed due to the threat of constant terrorism. The second objective of the United States foreign policy is the protection of the physical security of the perceived major allies of friends of the United States of America. For example, since the Second World War, the United States of America has dedicated itself to the protection of the countries of the Western Europe through the organization known as NATO, and also to protect some other countries on other contents like South Korea, Israel and Japan. The EU has also been in the forefront in trying to protect its interests and in its foreign policy, it has ensured that this is achieved by cooperating well with the United States in things like fighting terrorism and restoring peace where their interests are threatened. The foreign policy of the EU has been to ensure that some of their colonies, where their interests still exist are safe and sound. 3. The European Union; the transnational entity: a. The major occurrences that prompted the formation of EU From the concepts of the establishment of sovereign state illustrated by a union ‘federation’ together with the organization of sovereign member states; that is the ‘confederation’ the major development in the region was on a supranational base or foundation which is the means by which the process of making decisions in transnational political communities, in which the delegation or transfer of power is done to an authority by the member states governments, was done to make war a very impossible thing and also not thinkable whatsoever. The major events that brought about the formation of the European Union included the establishment of the ECSC, meaning European Coal and Steel Community in the year 1952. This organization was composed of six countries and acted like a transnational organization that worked to bring unity in Western Europe during the time of the Cold War, and establish the basis for the present day European Union’s developments (Gellner, 2009). The European Coal and Steel Community was the first ever organization to have its basis on the ideas of supranationalism. The signing of the Rome Treaties was done in the year 1957 by Belgium, Luxembourg, France, West Germany, Italy and Netherlands. Nonetheless, we find that the first accord was the formation of the European Economic Community, while the second one was the formation of the European Atomic Energy Community. These were regarded as the first ever global organizations to be done on the basis of supranationalism; that is after the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community a few years before. Then there came the establishment of two new organizations that were separate from the European Coal and Steel Community. The new organizations were under the stewardship of commissioners, which was a different case from the ‘high authority.’ However, the EEC was able to form a customs union between the members and the European Atomic Energy Community would incorporate sectors in the nuclear energy (Gellner, 2009). During the year 1973, the EU began to see expansion to cover the new states that had become members. This is a process that started with the first six states that were already in the accord, and who established the European Coal and Steel Community in the year 1952. In the year 1992, there was the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, which led to the establishment of the EU when it became operational in the month of November of the following year. Since then, the membership of the European Union has grown to about twenty seven states with the most recent inclusions being Romania and Bulgaria in the year 2007. b. The major nations and institutions that forms the EU The composition of the EU is twenty seven independent member states which include Britain, Bulgaria, Spain, Romania, Portugal, Luxembourg, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Czech Republic, Belgium, Latvia, Austria, Poland, Finland, Malta, Slovenia, Denmark, Slovakia, Greece, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, Sweden, Cyrus, Italy and France. There are three main political institutions that holds the legislative and executive power of the European Union. The governments are represented by the Council, the citizens represented by the Parliament and the European Interests represented by the Commission. c. The contemporary EU’s functions The major function of the organization or union is the enabling of closer ties between the states that are members. This is for the purposes of making the most of the combined abilities of the states that are members, for instance the freedom of movement, the free trade among the countries, and the freedom of choosing a job. This allows for a lot of the officialdom that used to be in involvement with the matters that were to be passed. The European Union was also established for the purposes of counterbalancing the position that had been taken by the United States of America as the sole world superpower (Gellner, 2009). The union cannot be said to be belonging to a single particular nation, as every member has a voice in its operations. The union was primarily established following the necessity of stability in the region after World War Two, and was an outcome of initially economic accords, which is still forming the main foundation of the present day European Union. d. Examples of foreign policy goals for the EU The first goal of the European Union is using a vital diplomacy and also to be a major player in the international matters that range from global warming to the crisis in the region of Middle East. This foundation for the common security and foreign policy of the European Union remains a ‘soft’ power; that is the use of discretion –supported where important by trade, peacekeepers and assistance; to resolve the crises and establish global understanding. The second goal of the union is put all the security and foreign policy and the governments of the European Union governments in charge, in one area. 4. Analysis of the way the traditional entities and nation-states are involved with the foreign policy in achieving their interests and the consequences of the interaction for global politics. a. The interests of the nation-states essentially shapes the nation’s foreign policy, as the nation-state requires; for example when there is need for development in the economical part, the nation’s foreign policy is changed to meet the requirements for the objections of the nation-state thus it begins the maintenance or establishment of good relationship with the other countries for the purposes of enhancing the trade business. Taking the United States of America as an example, we find that the country has always put its physical security as the first priority. The nation-state has invested heavily in its security agencies to ensure that its territories, people and properties are well secured and protected. The United States also ensures that its allies are safe and that their physical security is well protected. A good example is Israel, which enjoys massive backing from the United States in terms of military power. In the same way, the European Union nations represent the interests of all the countries of the European Union by the shaping of the foreign policy to the maintenance of the peace in the region and the efforts of reducing the global warming (Gellner, 2009). The union ensures that it puts all the security and foreign policy and the governments of the European Union governments in charge, in one area, whereby the fundamental authority remains with the governments of the European Union, even though the European commission and to some extent the parliament, have an association with the process (Gellner, 2009). Major decisions are usually taken by a unanimous vote. The United States has for so long been involved in international politics for the purposes of ensuring that its interests together with its people are well and adequately protected. However, this international involvement in politics has its consequences. Some of them are that it leads to the country having more enemies; that is those who believe that the country is using its military power to suppress other nations that might be considered as threats. Finally, it is true that the national states’ development has been of great significance in the current world. Essentially, the benefits and loyalties of nationalism have need the forces of motivation in the structuring of the complex societies that are technological in nature during the period of the urban industrial. Moreover, they have been essential forces in the establishment and establishment of the global antagonism. References Sinisa, M. (2006). Identity as Ideology: Understanding Ethnicity and Nationalism New York: Palgrave. Gellner, E. (2009). Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Read More