Westphalian system

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Westphalian system , Westphalian state system or Westphalian model is, in the narrower sense, the political order that developed in Europe on the basis of the state theory of Jean Bodin and the natural law theory of Hugo Grotius after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. According to this concept, states are not only the legal monopolists of war, but also the de facto monopolists of the ability to wage war.

In the broader, political-scientific sense, it is basically a system of internally and externally sovereign nation- states.

With the installation of the Westphalian system, the idea of ​​a “state nation within a nation state” came into play for the first time. In the centuries that followed, the nation developed - often as a homogeneously idealized - to legitimize and motivate political rule . Some nations, for example in the First or Second World War, came to the brink of self-destruction.

Principles

Three principles are characteristic:

Sovereignty principle
Every state is sovereign. No authority is superior to the set of states; among them the principle of self-help or anarchy prevails .
Territorial principle
The states have clear territorial boundaries within which they have a monopoly of force .
Principle of legality
The states have equal rights among each other , war as a means of enforcing the interests of a state is considered legitimate.

The negotiated prohibition of violence between states in the Charter of the United Nations after the Second World War and the restriction of state sovereignty due to the progressive universalization of human rights are indications that the Westphalian system has been further developed.

Mark

Features of the system are:

  • The international system is one of states ; the state is the sole actor.
  • The monarch or the government represents the state and its people externally ( foreign policy ).
  • States are in principle sovereign and in principle (under international law) equal ( equality ).
  • The law is the law of the States.
  • States are governed by reason of state .
  • Communication between states is ensured through diplomacy .
  • The system strives for a balance of power between the states, especially through the formation of alliances and counterpower.
  • War is another part of the normality of the state system.

The characteristics of the political order of the Westphalian system can be related to modern theories of international relations . The theory of neorealism according to Kenneth Waltz and the realism according to Hans Morgenthau make similar basic assumptions.

criticism

In historical studies , the term Westphalian system is not used and viewed critically because on the one hand it restricts the process of becoming a nation state in Europe too much to a certain period of time and on the other hand due to the intentions of the negotiating partners involved and the actual resolutions of the peace congress in Münster and Osnabrück is not covered.

Political science objects to this criticism that it is not the conscious intention of the actors to create this system that is relevant, but only the empirical fact that interstate relations have functioned according to this logic of action since 1648 and can be analyzed with great explanatory power. The year 1648 is also not viewed as an isolated event, but as a prominent point in a long process of transformation , which in turn is very close to the view of historical science.

In 1999 an article by Susan Strange appeared posthumously entitled The Westfailure System (a pun on the Westphalia System ). The tenor of the article was that the nation-state system had failed to cope with the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis . The term Westfailure System has been used again many times since then.

literature

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Susan Strange: The Westfailure System. Review of International Studies, 1999, 25, pp. 345-354.
  2. ↑ Abstract
  3. ↑ Randall Germain (Ed.): Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, control and transformation . Routledge 2016, ISBN 1138645850 . In it u. a. (Pp. 33-52): Craig N. Murphy: 'The Westfailure System' Fifteen Years On: Global Problems, What Makes Them Difficult to Solve, and the Role of IPE
  4. ↑ 1st edition 2004, ISBN 3-8329-0966-4 .