The Civilizing Process by Norbert Elias
The Civilizing Process by Norbert Elais explains how modern nation-states came into existence as well as how state development led to changes in the minds and conduct of contemporary citizens. His main claim is that post-medieval Europe’s functional complexity resulted from the sublimation of man’s animalistic tendencies. When the reader first encounters results like “in medieval civilization people typically blew their nostrils into their palms,” they immediately question their relevance (126). Since etiquette, manners, and social conventions are not the main operational principles in Elias’ work, economics (Marx, Polanyi, Moore, North, and Thomas) has typically been the dominating explanation for the emergence of the modern nation-state.
The Civilizing Process by Norbert Elias
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However, Elias makes a strong argument that because they function as social control mechanisms and lay the foundation for the nation-state, such norms should be given precedence when explaining phenomena. Such a discovery aids political scientists in resolving the age-old conundrum of why Western political systems crumble when introduced to strange Third-World social contexts. The majority of analysts have attributed this to uneven economic development, but Elias would likely support a claim that Third-World civilizations lack a “civilizing” process. Even though such an explanation, like Putnam’s argument that Southern Italy’s “civic culture” is bankrupt, is susceptible to critiques of essentialism, cultural determinism, and other postmodern flaws, it at least makes us aware of relevant, non-economic factors at play in the relationship between development and democracy.
Nobert Elias, however, is intrepid in that he musters up enough guts to write about the Medieval and Early Modern Periods of European History in “the Civilizing Process.” Sociologists typically write about the nineteenth and twentieth centuries if they address the topic of history at all. He did, in fact, refute many of my preconceptions about those two eras; in particular, he showed me that the Middle Ages had actually been a time of great violence and uncertainty. When contemplating Medieval history, the image of a gleaming knight in armour frequently comes to mind; Few, however, often picture the time as one in which a tenuous balance existed between peasants who fought for survival and bloodthirsty knights who vied with one another for limited resources. After reading this book, I have a greater understanding of the progressive interpretation of history.
