Abdullah Ocalan - Democratic Confederalism

When people became sedentary they began to form an idea of the environment they were living in, its extension and its boundaries, which were mostly determined by nature and features of the landscape. Clans and tribes that had settled in a certain area and lived there for a long period of time developed an idea of a common identity and a homeland. The boundaries between what the tribes saw as their homelands were not yet borders. Commerce, culture or languages were not restricted by these boundaries. Territorial borders remained flexible for a long time. Feudal structures prevailed almost everywhere, and now and then dynastic monarchies or great multi-ethnic empires with many different languages and religious communities rose within borders continuously changing such as the Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire or the British Empire. They survived for long periods of time and through many political changes because their feudal basis enabled them to distribute their power-structures flexibly across a wide range of s maller secondary power centers.

NATION-STATE AND POWER

When the nation-state appeared trade, commerce and finance pushed for political participation and subsequently added their power to the traditional state-structures. The development of the nation-state at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution more than two hundred years ago went hand in hand with the unregulated accumulation of capital and the unhindered exploitation of the fast growing population on the other hand. The new bourgeoisie, which rose from this revolution, wanted to take part in the political decisions and structures of the state. Thus, capitalism, the new economic system, became an inherent component of the new nation-state.

This nation-state needed the bourgeoisie and the power of the capital to replace the old feudal order and its ideology, which rested on tribal structures and inherited rights, by a new national ideology that united all tribes and clans under the roof of the nation.

In this way, capitalism and nation-state became so close that neither could be imagined to exist without the other.

As a consequence of this, exploitation was not only sanctioned by the state but even encouraged and facilitated.

THE STATE AND ITS RELIGIOUS ROOTS

The religious roots of the state have already been discussed in detail (A. Ocalan, The Roots of Civilisation , London, 2007). Many contemporary political concepts and notions have their origin in religious or theological concepts or structures. In fact, a closer look reveals that religion and divine imagination brought about the first social identities in history. They formed the ideological glue of many tribes and other pre-state communities and defined their existence as communities.

Later, after state structures had already developed, the traditional links between state, power and society began to weaken. The sacred and divine ideas and practices which had been present at the origin of the community increasingly lost their meaning for the common identity and were, instead, transferred onto power structures such as monarchs or dictators. The state and its power were derived from divine will and law, and its ruler became king by the grace of God. The kings represented divine power on earth.

Today, most modern states call themselves secular. They claim that the old bonds between religion and state have been severed and that religion is no longer a part of the state.

This is, arguably, only half the truth. Even if religious institutions or representatives of the clergy do no longer participate in political and social decision-making they still exert influence on these decisions just as they are influenced themselves by political or social ideas and developments. Therefore, secularism, or laicism as it is called in Turkey, still contains religious elements. The separation of state and religion is the result of a political decision. It did not come naturally. This is why even today power and state seem to be something given, god-given we might even say. Notions like secular state or secular power remain ambiguous.

The nation-state has also allocated a number of attributes that serve to replace older religiously rooted attributes such as nation, fatherland, national flag, national anthem and many others. Particularly notions like the unity of state and nation serve to transcend the material political structures. They are, as such, reminiscent of the pre-state unity with God. They have been put in the place of the divine.

When in former times a tribe subjugated another tribe its members had to worship the gods of the victors. We may arguably call this process a process of colonization, even assimilation. The nation-state is a centralized state with quasi-divine attributes that has completely disarmed the society an d monopolizes the use of force.

BUREAUCRACY AND THE NATION-STATE

Since the nation-state transcends its material basis, i.e. the citizens, it assumes an existence beyond its political institutions. It needs additional institutions of its own to protect its ideological basis as well as its legal, economic and religious structures. The resulting ever-expanding civil and military bureaucracy is expensive and serves only the preservation of the transcendent state itself, which in turn elevates the bureaucracy above the people.