Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2017, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (5): 1-23.

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Borderland, Border, and State:A Werberian Study

HE Rong   

  1. Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
  • Online:2017-09-20 Published:2017-09-20

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Abstract:

For the developing countries, the key issue of the rural side of the modernization led by industrialization and urbanization, i.e., how to develop agriculture while facing population mobility and the broken ties of decaying traditional community, is the basic challenge not only to economic policy but to political balance. During 1890's, after several decades of rapid development, the East Elbian region of Germany suffered from poverty, debt, inequality, etc. Young and promising Max Weber, as an agricultural economist, conducts a data survey and analysis on the East Elbian labors, based on which comes into being his disputable 1895 address "National State and Economic Policy", his suggestions, such as closing the borders, keeping out Slavic seasonal labors and Germanize the eastern borderland earn him a reputation of aggressive nationalist.
Focusing on borderland and border, this study suggests that the key point is the global mobility of population, goods and capitals endangers the old frame of state economic strategy and political governance, border in this perspective, is the visible symbol of boundary defining sovereignty with latent multi-layers of cultural meaning. Based on this idea, besides legal, political and economic considerations, this paper suggests a sociological concept of state with a core of "Guomin" or the people mainly living in a country with the identification to certain culture but open to differences, inclusive and with consent, share equal right with corresponding share of responsibility. For a state with multi-nationalities, the theory of "Guomin-state" will be helpful to crystalize a stable identification based on diversity.

Key words: borderland and border, Agrarian-Political research, Guomin-State theory, Max Weber