Processes of State-Formation and Types of Militarism

This paper tries to outline relationships between particular long-term trajectories of state-formation and the evolution of different types of militarism which had become dominant in particular countries. According to Norbert Elias, state-formation is the result of ”elimination contests.” These are geo-political and bellicose rivalries between proto-states and states in the course of which some of these political units get absorbed by others. Thus, state-formation is always related to military competition; either directly (as competitor) or indirectly (a s neutralised zones on behalf of a balance of power between stronger units).

Therefore, militarism is not only an attitude or a value-system which can be found in certain societies and which is missing elsewhere. In most pre-modern and modern state-societies, certain militaristic national habitus (plural!) are to be found among certain social classes. The interesting question therefore is not if but how militarism is to be documented and prevailing within certain state-societies.

The paper suggests to use originations of culture, art, and entertainment in order to get information about different militaristic habitus (plural!). Examples are paintings, statues, sculptures, music, movies, or state-ceremonies which documents these types of habitus.

By focusing on some studies of country-cases on the base of a historical-comparative research design, the aesthetic of militarism bound to a certain national habitus will be outlined and put into contrast to each other. The sample of the cases country consist only of Western societies like the US, Britain, Germany or France.

The paper will follow approaches developed by Karl Mannheim (Documentary Methode) and Norbert Elias and tries to apply ideas and research techniques developed by these authors.