Urban Civilization And The Rise Of The Modern Nation-state In Western Europe,

The rise of the nation state in early modern Europe is an important part in the transformation from the traditional agricultural society to the modern industrial society. Studying the historical course of the political modernization of early modern Europe is crucial for us to understand the general trend of political modernization in the world, and hence beneficial in our search for a rational and appropriate model of political modernization. This thesis argues that the rise of the nation state in early modern Europe is rooted in its particular historical setting, namely, it is closely related to the development of independent commercial cities since the late Middle Ages. In late Medieval Europe, the burgher society that grew out of the recovery of agriculture and the revival of commerce has already been given its social structure and taken up its social role, whereas the feudal state that was opposed to it has yet to be unified and centralized. This divergence between the urban burgher society and the feudal state has prepared the social and material conditions and institutional basis necessary for the modern nation state.More specifically, the economic independence and personal freedom of the burgher class helped to shape the citizenry of the modern nation state. Personal freedom and the sacred right of private property are the primary basis of early modern bourgeois democracy. It was the Medieval city that guaranteed the personal freedom and private property of the burgher class. Secondly, the autonomy of the city has provided the modern nation state with a useful model. The autonomy of the city stands on the one hand for its autonomy out of the feudal lords, and on the other, for its system of self-administration and social life. The institutionalization and democratization of the administration of the city, and the consequent identification of the burgher class to public authority prepared the institutional and ideological basis for the modern nation state. Thirdly, the rise and expansion of capitalism characteristic of the medieval city engineered the formation of a unified national market which was to be the foundation of the modern nation state. Fourthly, the ascendancy of the rationalist religious faith of the burgher class symbolizes the modernizing transformation of social and religious values of Western Europe. It was under these individualistic rationalist values that the political and economic order of early modern Europe was reconstructed. Lastly, the rationalist political culture of the burgher class helped to shape the framework ofpolitical ideology of the nation state. Political thinkers of the burgher class have expounded the idea of the natural right of the individual and further proposed new concepts of state power, national community, democracy and republicanism. These ideas and concepts proved to be the ideological basis of the modern nation state.The nation state of early modern Europe, however, did not rise out of the divergence of the burgher class and the feudal power. Rather it rose out of the alliance of the two forces. Such an alliance was made possible by the discovery that both parties shared a common interest, that is, the political unification of the nation. Yet this alliance proved to be temporary because the centralized monarchy did not aim at the interest of the entire nation and the freedom, equality, and happiness of the entire citizenry. The increasingly powerful bourgeois class then took the last step to construct the modem nation state by overthrowing the monarchy.