Incubating Nation-States

For a paper I'm writing in an Urban Planning seminar, I'm reading up on institutional development. Institutional development is pretty self-explanatory. It's the idea that institutions develop--they evolve, they grow, they change. Different authors have different theories about how institutions tend to develop in certain circumstances, and how institutions should develop.

Phillip Selznick has an idea termed "incubation for maturation." He recommends that nascent institutions must have a period of incubation in the early stages of their existence. They must be free from external pressure that may undermine the institution's values and constituents. This period of "incubation"--which he also calls "isolation"--allows an institution to have the freedom to sort out their ideas. An institution can refine and experiment with its values, so that they may become stronger and more unifying. After "incubation," an institution will have a strong set of values that can unify all its members. When faced with external pressures, the institution will now be able to confront them head on. It can rally around its tested values and its loyal members.

He gives the example of the Bolsheviks, and how their period of "incubation" from 1924 to 1935 allowed them to emerge as a strong--albeit authoritarian--party. As a group with a strong unifying set of values and a committed body of members, the communist party was able to firmly grip its power for decades.

This is of course an ugly example. However, it makes me wonder if a period of incubation could be good for developing countries. Maybe a populist group with democratic ideals should be allowed to rise to power, and then tighten its grip temporarily. Rule in an authoritarian manner and unify its nation under the identity and ideology that it offers.

I realize that this sounds completely awful. Just writing it, I realize how terrible it would be. The goal of incubation to strengthen identity and ideology inevitably necessitates indoctrinating and purging a nation. That's how a ruling party keeps external pressure out, and strengthens its unity; kill off the disunity.

Also, I think incubation may cause creativity to be restricted. Rather than incubation allowing new ideas to be tried out, the same old values are just tweaked and tried out in different ways. Most of the strengthening that incubation enables goes towards disciplining its constituents rather than refining its ideology.

Nonetheless, I recognize the (few) virtues of this idea. Building national unity is a tough thing. National unity often needs a national identity that citizens can unite around. Creating a national identity--of cultures, values (and language?)--is tough. Maybe this is the point/goal of incubation. Incubation allows weak, diverse state to gain cohesion. It doesn't mean cultures must be obliterate--although this is a definite, definite threat. It allows a nation to overcome its sectarian divisions.

If the idea of the nation-state really is to show its merit in the world, maybe this is the only realistic way it can be done. The US had to fought a civil war over its national identity (among other things). Maybe a period of intense incubation eliminates conflicts like this taht will certainly arise in developing states with multiple ethnic and religious groups.