Social Europe

  • EU Forward Project
  • YouTube
  • Podcast
  • Books
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

Has the coronavirus brought back the nation-state?

Jan Zielonka 26th March 2020

The coronavirus crisis has remade the case for public authority—but that can only work in a complex network of multi-level governance.

nation-state
Jan Zielonka

From Madrid to Paris, Berlin to Warsaw, the nation-state seems to be experiencing a striking renaissance. Borders are back, and with them national selfishness. Each national government is focusing on its own people, and each claims to be better prepared to fight the crisis than its neighbours.

Virtually overnight, national capitals have effectively reclaimed sovereignty from the European Union without asking either their own people or Brussels for permission. They are practically ruling by decree in a war-style fashion. We are at war, declared the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and he sent armed units on to the streets to police the draconian orders. Other leaders have more or less followed suit.

The coronavirus outbreak seems to be reversing the course of history. Gone is globalisation and European integration. Back is the heroic struggle of states for national survival.

The return-of-the-state scenario sounds familiar, but it is misleading. The coronavirus has indeed shown the need for public authority to deal with the emergency, but this authority is partly at the state level, partly at the local level and partly at the European one.

Complex network

For the last three decades or so the private sector has vastly expanded at the expense of the public sector; profits have usually been privatised while the state has been left with the risks. With the coronavirus risk of historical proportions, the public sector is being called back to arms—and it is here to stay, as was the case after World War II. However, this time it will increasingly operate on different territorial levels, which means that states will have to act through a complex network if they want to remain useful and legitimate.

The coronavirus has exposed the scale of the public sector’s neglect after a long period of neoliberal folly. Today no one in Europe dares to claim that private hospitals can combat the virus better than the public ones. Underpaid nurses from these public hospitals are now more precious than private health consultants.

These public hospitals and nurses are usually in the hands of regional governments and they must rely on medications and equipment produced in countries other than their own. Local authorities are increasingly unhappy with instructions coming from the national capitals, chiefly because they find national solutions inadequate for coping with their local circumstances.

Common solution

One state after another promises financial help not only to their hospitals, but also to their businesses and workers. However, these promises can only be implemented if there is a common solution within the eurozone, the EU and perhaps also the G7 and the International Monetary Fund. The real impact of these financial injections will also depend on the reaction of transnational markets. And again, without the co-operation of local authorities the national politicians will fail to make good on any of their undertakings.

States have indeed closed national borders, but this was a rather symbolic step as the most vital borders are around cities or regions where we observe concentrated outbreaks. I doubt whether before the epidemic any Italian minister had ever visited places such as Codogno or Vo, which are the epicentres of infections. Yet within these small communities, not in Rome, the real battle against the virus is being fought. States may be tempted to retain hard borders after the end of this pandemic scare, but it is hard to see any good in such a move.

Effective migration policy requires multinational trans-border engagement with countries of the middle east and north Africa. Cyberattacks can hardly be stopped by state borders. Internet-based communication and financial flows do not respect state borders either. And it is difficult to imagine how nation-states on their own can cope with climate change.

Economic autarky

Some national politicians have promised to liberate their states from dependence on imports of some health-related items. This may be sensible in some cases. There is nothing wrong with producing Italian or Belgian sanitary gloves or masks, rather than begging for Chinese ones in a crisis. Yet the invention and production of up-to-date anti-viral or anti-bacterial medicines requires global and regional engagement. Economic autarky is not conducive to innovation and crisis prevention.

Moreover, cultural identities are no longer as simple as nationalist politicians claim. This is not only the case in multinational states such as the UK, Belgium or Spain. Italy or Germany have strong regional identities without statist pretentions. Urban identities are gaining in importance but cities are not interested in passports, sovereignty and borders.

Even in such a traditional nation-state as Poland, liberal Poles are at odds with illiberal ones, urban Poles are at odds with peripheral ones and Catholic Poles are at odds with the secular ones. (The secularisation of young Poles is striking.) If there is anything that unites the Poles at present it is their enthusiasm about the European Union, supported by nearly 90 per cent of the population. In the 21st century the sovereigntist idea that people across the continent will unite under national flags is wishful thinking, and hence the difficulty in recreating a Europe of nation-states alone.

Bad news

In sum, the vindication of the public sphere does not herald the return of nation-states to their past glory. This is bad news not only for nativists, but also for traditional socialists who see the nation-state as the only viable provider of public goods. Those who believe that democracy can only function well in nation-states and not beyond will also be disappointed.

Local and European democracy may not be flawless—but if we look at the data showing low public trust in national parliaments, we should start thinking about democracy in novel ways. Public government at whatever territorial level ought to be transparent and accountable. It should also envisage a meaningful degree of citizens’ participation. If this does not happen, the notion of the public is captured by special interests.

A proper functioning of the revived public sector will require more creative thinking and institutional engineering than currently being offered by either liberals or sovereigntists. Nation-states may be here to stay, but they will have to work in tandem with other public units.

A German version of this article was published by Die Zeit, ‘Schlechte Nachrichten für Nationalisten’

Jan Zielonka
Jan Zielonka

Jan Zielonka is professor of politics and international relations at the University of Venice, Cá Foscari, and at the University of Oxford. His latest book is The Lost Future and How to Reclaim It  (Yale University Press, 2023).

Harvard University Press Advertisement

Social Europe Ad - Promoting European social policies

We need your help.

Support Social Europe for less than €5 per month and help keep our content freely accessible to everyone. Your support empowers independent publishing and drives the conversations that matter. Thank you very much!

Social Europe Membership

Click here to become a member

Most Recent Articles

u421983467f bb39 37d5862ca0d5 0 Ending Britain’s “Brief Encounter” with BrexitStefan Stern
u421983485 2 The Future of American Soft PowerJoseph S. Nye
u4219834676d582029 038f 486a 8c2b fe32db91c9b0 2 Trump Can’t Kill the Boom: Why the US Economy Will Roar Despite HimNouriel Roubini
u42198346fb0de2b847 0 How the Billionaire Boom Is Fueling Inequality—and Threatening DemocracyFernanda Balata and Sebastian Mang
u421983441e313714135 0 Why Europe Needs Its Own AI InfrastructureDiane Coyle

Most Popular Articles

startupsgovernment e1744799195663 Governments Are Not StartupsMariana Mazzucato
u421986cbef 2549 4e0c b6c4 b5bb01362b52 0 American SuicideJoschka Fischer
u42198346769d6584 1580 41fe 8c7d 3b9398aa5ec5 1 Why Trump Keeps Winning: The Truth No One AdmitsBo Rothstein
u421983467 a350a084 b098 4970 9834 739dc11b73a5 1 America Is About to Become the Next BrexitJ Bradford DeLong
u4219834676ba1b3a2 b4e1 4c79 960b 6770c60533fa 1 The End of the ‘West’ and Europe’s FutureGuillaume Duval
u421983462e c2ec 4dd2 90a4 b9cfb6856465 1 The Transatlantic Alliance Is Dying—What Comes Next for Europe?Frank Hoffer
u421983467 2a24 4c75 9482 03c99ea44770 3 Trump’s Trade War Tears North America Apart – Could Canada and Mexico Turn to Europe?Malcolm Fairbrother
u4219834676e2a479 85e9 435a bf3f 59c90bfe6225 3 Why Good Business Leaders Tune Out the Trump Noise and Stay FocusedStefan Stern
u42198346 4ba7 b898 27a9d72779f7 1 Confronting the Pandemic’s Toxic Political LegacyJan-Werner Müller
u4219834676574c9 df78 4d38 939b 929d7aea0c20 2 The End of Progess? The Dire Consequences of Trump’s ReturnJoseph Stiglitz

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Spring Issues

The Spring issue of The Progressive Post is out!


Since President Trump’s inauguration, the US – hitherto the cornerstone of Western security – is destabilising the world order it helped to build. The US security umbrella is apparently closing on Europe, Ukraine finds itself less and less protected, and the traditional defender of free trade is now shutting the door to foreign goods, sending stock markets on a rollercoaster. How will the European Union respond to this dramatic landscape change? .


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss European defence strategies, assess how the US president's recent announcements will impact international trade and explore the risks  and opportunities that algorithms pose for workers.


READ THE MAGAZINE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. The background to this is the implementation of the European Minimum Wage Directive, which has led to a reorientation of minimum wage policy in many countries and is thus boosting the dynamics of minimum wages. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. However, for Germany, a structural increase is still necessary to make progress towards an adequate minimum wage.

DOWNLOAD HERE

KU Leuven advertisement

The Politics of Unpaid Work

This new book published by Oxford University Press presents the findings of the multiannual ERC research project “Researching Precariousness Across the Paid/Unpaid Work Continuum”,
led by Valeria Pulignano (KU Leuven), which are very important for the prospects of a more equal Europe.

Unpaid labour is no longer limited to the home or volunteer work. It infiltrates paid jobs, eroding rights and deepening inequality. From freelancers’ extra hours to care workers’ unpaid duties, it sustains precarity and fuels inequity. This book exposes the hidden forces behind unpaid labour and calls for systemic change to confront this pressing issue.

DOWNLOAD HERE FOR FREE

ETUI advertisement

HESA Magazine Cover

What kind of impact is artificial intelligence (AI) having, or likely to have, on the way we work and the conditions we work under? Discover the latest issue of HesaMag, the ETUI’s health and safety magazine, which considers this question from many angles.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Ageing workforce
How are minimum wage levels changing in Europe?

In a new Eurofound Talks podcast episode, host Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound expert Carlos Vacas Soriano about recent changes to minimum wages in Europe and their implications.

Listeners can delve into the intricacies of Europe's minimum wage dynamics and the driving factors behind these shifts. The conversation also highlights the broader effects of minimum wage changes on income inequality and gender equality.

Listen to the episode for free. Also make sure to subscribe to Eurofound Talks so you don’t miss an episode!

LISTEN NOW

Social Europe

Our Mission

Team

Article Submission

Advertisements

Membership

Social Europe Archives

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Miscellaneous

RSS Feed

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641