Suchergebnisse

Sammy Smooha's 'ethnic democracy' model challenged the notion of the uniqueness of Israel by setting it as the archetype of a special type of democracy: 'ethnic democracy'. But contrary to what Smooha suggests, Israel's national identity is indeed unique. In each of Smooha's East European examples, besides the concept of a core ethnic nation, exists the notion of a civic territorial nation, which makes possible the integration or 'assimilation' into the dominant culture of those who are not members of the core ethnic nation. Yet, Israel's national identity does not recognise the existence of a civic territorial nation and and makes no provisions for the integration or assimilation of non-Jews, especially Arabs, into the dominant Hebrew culture. Setting Israel as an archetype for his model prevents Smooha from exploring the possibility that, unlike Israel, East European 'ethnic democracy' could be a transitional phase towards a liberal democracy. (Nations and Nationalism)

In a collection of articles based on my Cambridge doctoral thesis (1994) I have argued that, contrary to what has been traditionally assumed, the Greek polis was not a State but rather what anthropologists call 'a stateless society'. The latter is characterized by the absence of 'government', that is, an agency which has separated itself out from the rest of social life and which monopolizes the use of violence. In a recent article Mogens Herman Hansen discusses and rejects my notion of the stateless polis. This paper is a rejoinder to Hansen's criticism and offers critical analysis of the concept of 'The Greek State' which has been employed by Hansen and by other ancient historians. Among the questions discussed: To what extent did the polis have amonopoly on violence? To what extent do the relations between the polis and its territory resemble those of (tribal) stateless communities? Could the State/Society distinction be applied to the Greek polis? How is the Greek distinction between the private and the public different from its modern counterpart and how is this difference related to the statelessness of the Greek polis?