State, Society and Culture (Week 8)

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Week 8 - Democracy and Human Rights 

Reading: Hannah Arendt- The Origins of Totalitarianism - The decline of the nation-state and end of the rights of man 

Decline of the nation-state and end of the rights of man 

  • Paradoxes and perplexities of the right to have rights with respect to the minorities post-WWI.
  • Nationalities and Minorities:

'The prolongation of their lives is due to charity and not to right, for no law exists which could force the nations to feed them'

  • The government protects and guarantees human rights.
  • Dissolution of old empires: Led to nation-states which were not homogeneous 
  • International agreements: League of Nations.
  • National Sovereignty and ineffective treaties: The decline of the nation-state.
  • Example: The People of Jewish origin.

The right to have rights

  • Totalitarian disregard for human life: bare life or life reduced to nakedness.
  • Minorities, Refugees, Stateless: Punctured the Enlightenment notions of rights.
  • The very right to have rights was denied.

"The rights of man had been defined inalienable because they were supposed to be independent of all governments- but it turned out that the moment human being lacked their own government, and had to fall back on their minimum rights, no authority was left to protect the, no institution was left to guarantee them'. 

  • Arendt (1951) first begin by addressing the historical significance of WWI and the devastation it raptured which lead to Europe being virtually unrecognisable. The war not only produced damage

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