Joseph Mazzini on the Nation

(By Andrew MacKie-Mason)

Mazzini was a liberal nationalist in mid-nineteenth century Italy. I came across some interesting passages from an essay of his entitled "On the Duties of Man" (reprinted in Weber, Eugen, The Western Tradition, vol. 2, 5th ed., Heath, Lexington, 1995).

On the purpose of the nation:

In labouring for our own country on the right principle, we labour for Humanity. Our country is the fulcrum of the lever we have to wield for the common good. If we abandon that fulcrum, we run the risk of rendering ourselves useless not only to humanity but to our country itself.

On the duties of the nation:

So long as a single one amongst your brothers has no vote to represent him in the development of the national life, so long as there is one left to vegetate in ignorance where others are educated, so long as a single man, able and willing to work, languishes in poverty through want of work to do, you have no country in the sense in which country ought to exist—the country of all and for all.

Education, labour, and the franchise, are the three main pillars of the nation. Rest not until you have built them strongly up with your own labour and exertions

Something to think about, at least.