People often say the EU is something completely new. The last completely new political form, advancing on those identified by Aristotle, was totalitarianism. I don’t think the EU is anything new, so much as it is a mess. Totalitarianism was distinct quickly. EU still blurry.
I tend to see the ability of a state to defend territory as being a constant feature across time, though other aspects probably do change. Do you see the EU as part of a project to globalise the liberal state?
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basically yes, or at least to expand its logic as far as it can go
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I think it is part of that, often under the rubric of “governance”. However, the actual execution has been ad hoc and ramshackle. It’s a utopian project, like the USSR but soft. It’s also a managerial extension of the US Empire. This liberal project is in recession now, I think.
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I agree with this. the liberal project is a mess and probably cannot support its own internal contradictions for much longer (eg the pretence of neutrality is wearing thin), but this is not the same as the state disappearing. the state and the form of the state are not the same
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Yes, liberalism must be hegemonic while pretending to be value neutral. This is in crisis and liberals know it. Could you expand on what you mean by the state and the form of the state not being the same and also tell me where you got the idea from, please?
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The state takes on different forms over time. For example, the state today is not the same as the state in the 20th C, which was not the same as the state in the 19th C, and so on.
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I agree to an extent, but don’t some things remain constant? Don’t states always monopolise force in a delineated territory, administer laws, and so on? The state may shrink or grow in its functions, but there has to be a core that makes it a “state” not something else, I think.
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perhaps there are some things the state always does, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to come up with an intensional definition. certainly, WRT our current situation, a state which encourages immigration (however irresponsibly) does not thfore cease to be a state, in my view
End of conversation
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