The Need for Satisfied National Minorities
The Need for Satisfied National Minorities

Summary/Abstract: It is both a revelation and a delight to read such an unorthodox essay as Roger Scruton’s “The Need for Nations”. The author is absolutely right to point out that “nation states […] alone inspire the obedience of the European people, and without them there is no way that the machinery of the Union can act. […] National loyalty marginalises loyalties of family, tribe and faith, and places before the citizen’s eyes, as the focus of his patriotic feeling, not a person or a group but a country. This country is defined by a territory, and by the history, culture and law that have made that territory ours. It is the emergence of territory from behind religion, tribe and dynasty that characterises the nationalist art and literature of the 19th century…” The uncommon view that the European Union cannot supplant national loyalties by a supranational “European” loyalty is fully supported by the recent financial crisis and its aftermath.

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