States Without Nations - Citizenship for Mortals

Erscheinungsjahr 2009
ISBN: 978-0-231-14876-4
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 34, 384 Seiten, Format (B × H): 163 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 667 g

Reihe: New Directions in Critical Theory

As citizens, we hold certain truths to be self-evident: that the rights to own land, marry, inherit property, and especially to assume birthright citizenship should be guaranteed by the state. The laws promoting these rights appear not only to preserve our liberty but to guarantee society remains just. Yet considering how much violence and inequality results from these legal mandates, Jacqueline Stevens asks whether we might be making the wrong assumptions. Would a world without such laws be more just?

Arguing that the core laws of the nation-state are more about a fear of death than a desire for freedom, Jacqueline Stevens imagines a world in which birthright citizenship, family inheritance, state-sanctioned marriage, and private land ownership are eliminated. Would chaos be the result? Drawing on political theory and history and incorporating contemporary social and economic data, she brilliantly critiques our sentimental attachments to birthright citizenship, inheritance, and marriage and highlights their harmful outcomes, including war, global apartheid, destitution, family misery, and environmental damage. It might be hard to imagine countries without the rules of membership and ownership that have come to define them, but as Stevens shows, conjuring new ways of reconciling our laws with the condition of mortality reveals the flaws of our present institutions and inspires hope for moving beyond them.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Stevens, Jacqueline

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Allgemeine Psychologie Sozialpsychologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Menschenrechte, Bürgerrechte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Staatsbürgerkunde, Staatsbürgerschaft, Zivilgesellschaft
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

PrefaceIntroduction1. The Persistence and Harms of Birthright Citizenship in So-called Liberal Theory and Countries2. Abolishing Birthright Citizenship3. A Theory of Wealth for Mortals4. Abolishing Inheritance5. The Law of the Mother6. Abolishing Marriage7. Abolishing Private Land Rights: Toward a New Practice of Eminent Domain8. Religion and the Nation-StateAppendix: Methods for an Open SocietyAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

Über Autor(innen)

Jacqueline Stevens is a professor in the political science department at Northwestern University and the author of Reproducing the State. She analyzes the politics of hereditary groups, including the laws and pseudoscientific narratives that make ethnicity, nation, race, and other intergenerational groups seem natural. Her research is available at www.jacquelinestevens.org.