The nation-state’s claim to transcend classes deepened the state-society split.

Evidence

Membership in a class, although looser and never as inevitably determined by social origin as in the orders and estates of feudal society, was generally by birth, and only extraordinary gifts or luck could change it. Social status was decisive for the individual’s participation in politics, and except in cases of national emergency when he was supposed to act only as a national, regardless of his class or party membership, he never was directly confronted with public affairs or felt directly responsible for their conduct. The rise of a class to greater importance in the community was always accompanied by the education and training of a certain number of its members for politics as a job, for paid (or, if they could afford it, unpaid.) service in the government and representation of the class in Parliament. That the majority of people remained outside all party or other political organization was not important to anyone, and no truer for one particular class than another. In other words, membership in a class, its limited group obligations and traditional attitudes toward government, prevented the growth of a citizenry that felt individually and personally responsible for the rule of the country. This apolitical character of the nation-state’s populations came to light only when the class system broke down and carried with it the whole fabric of visible and invisible threads which bound the people to the body politic. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 753 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Racial ideology obscured America’s class divisions with a myth of unity.; Class membership prevented the growth of personally responsible citizenry in the nation-state — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 753; English nationalism displaced class solidarity after Chartism’s defeat. (+2 more)

Related

• Class membership prevented the growth of personally responsible citizenry in the nation-state (similarity 0.86)

Broader Connections

• Class membership prevented the growth of personally responsible citizenry in the nation-state #expands (0.82) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 753
• The nation-state was the body politic of emancipated European peasant classes #contradicts (0.82)
• The class system coexisted with political equality and blocked republics #expands (0.80)
• Racial ideology obscured America’s class divisions with a myth of unity. #expands (0.78)
• English nationalism displaced class solidarity after Chartism’s defeat. #exemplifies (0.75)