Modernity, Nationalism, and the “Promise of Omnipotence”. A Conversation with Hartmut Rosa

Abstract

The interview focuses on Hartmut Rosa’s interpretation of the modern nation state. According to his theory, the territorial state, which unifies and standardizes time, language, law and currency, is understood in close dependence with modern processes of social acceleration. A dialectical relationship would take place: while the Westphalian state explains social acceleration, it is also recognized that the nation state became such a successful institution precisely due to the fact that it could accelerate. In the long run, the centrifugal forces of acceleration, which help to bring about contemporary globalization, tend to leave the sovereign state in a fragile condition. On the other hand, the nation, as a separable phenomenon irreducible to the state, seems to be a much less discussed category in Rosa’s work. In this interview, Rosa introduces the nation as a cultural engine that provides the motivational force for the state to function properly. His sociological distinction between “cultural” and “institutional” levels is applied to the nation state, necessarily a hybrid. Looking at today’s world, Rosa discusses the current rise of national populism and what he calls the “promise of omnipotence” (the idea that the people is all powerful), as a way of explaining the return of nationalism; but he also grapples with the phenomenon of cosmopolitanism (as distinct from globalization) and the hegemony of China.