The evolutionary theory of the nation and plurinational federalism in Otto Bauer’s oeuvre

Abstract

This article systematically analyzes Otto Bauer’s concept of nation as a non-essential community and as an evolutionary process of political construction, that it is open and contingent as well as plural and contested. This innovative concept enabled him to overcome the nineteenth-century monist equation, underlying both the postulates of the national state (one State = one Nation) and its secular antagonist, the Principle of Nationalities (one Nation = one State). The pluralist and processual conception of nation enabled it, in turn, to postulate a normative proposal unthinkable from the classic assumptions of the theory of sovereignty, not only for the nation state, but also for sub-state nationalisms against the state: a democratic plurinational state bound to facilitate the coexistence of several nations in a plural scenario of mutual respect, interterritorial solidarity, cooperation and reciprocal cultural and linguistic enrichment. The institutional and cultural design that enlightens this new scenario is provided by federalism, but a reformulated format for it, namely the plurinational federalism, that is characterized by self-government and shared government, unity and diversity, and a balance between the territorial and personal principle, thought for recognition, material equality and respect between national majorities and minorities. The current relevance of accommodation designs based on ethnic and national pluralism, through mechanisms of territorial and non-territorial autonomy illustrates the fruitfulness of Bauer’s thought.