Repensando a Nação

For a Critique of the Leninist Conception of the national question

Abstract

“Le principe de toute souveraineté réside essentiellement dans la nation. Nul corps, nul individu ne peut exercer d’autorité qui n’en émane expressément” ([Dec.], art. 3), the French revolutionaries wrote in 1789, in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. It was not the first time that the concept of nation had emerged in the course of history. In the 16th century, Bacquet referred to the community of French subjects as a nation, during the European Middle Ages, nations were both the guilds of merchants across the continent and the university student groups (Chabod, 2019, p. 188). Looking back even further into the past, the Romans identified distant and underdeveloped populations as nationes (Amselle, 1999), as opposed to the populus. However, those who gathered in the National Assembly in 1789 did not merely introduce a new political principle, but brought about a shift in its meaning. A shift that marked a theoretical and political break. The consequences of this re-semantization have lasted for over two centuries, sparking debates, controversies, reflections and alternative proposals. In this article, I will engage critically with the Leninist perspective, an essential heritage for wondering what alternative there might be to the nation.