The EU in that regards is, in other words, far more like the US of 1800, when most people thought of themselves as a State citizen first, and a US citizen as well.
Of course, if there is a tendency among USofAmericans to equate Real_World=USA, there is also a tendency in Europe to equate Real_World=Europe.
What makes the Nine Nations thesis so useful for analysing events in the US is the very strength of the myth of a common national identity. That is what makes the understanding of the main regional identities so important in understanding social and political events in the US.
However, it must be recognised that if the myth was firmly establish that the US is a confederation of Eight (or more likely Nine) Regional Nations, using a state federal system as the arena to decide upon cooperative confederation-wide actions, it would be equally necessary to point out how the common impacts of those common actions makes for very real threads of common identify contained within the national boundaries.
An attempt to understand current social, political and economic events WRT the Nine Nations thesis alone would not stand up, not without substantial further political evolution. It would be incoherent to pretend there are no coherent differences that line up on the US-Canadian border that runs through New England, Foundry, Breadbasket, Empty Quarter and Pacific Northwest, and the Mexican-American border that runs through Mexamerica. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
Yes, people in the EU are more likely to encounter a broader range of diversity than people in the US, but there are fewer people in the EU who imagine themselves to be Europeans first and foremost, and French and Pole and Slovak and Spanish and Scottish after.
How many MEPs does Newropeans reckon to obtain in the European elections of 2009? Newropeans reckons to obtain between 5% and 10% of the votes in the European elections of 2009 and therefore between 50 and 75 MEPs. This would immediately turn Newropeans into a key political actor in the European Parliament: the only one with a European group from the same political movement, and the only one to have a direct relationship with European citizens from all over the continent. That will allow us to implement the programme, and to attract MEPs and other movements represented in the European Parliament. In function of such a result, Newropeans would hope to obtain over 150 seats in 2014.
Newropeans reckons to obtain between 5% and 10% of the votes in the European elections of 2009 and therefore between 50 and 75 MEPs. This would immediately turn Newropeans into a key political actor in the European Parliament: the only one with a European group from the same political movement, and the only one to have a direct relationship with European citizens from all over the continent. That will allow us to implement the programme, and to attract MEPs and other movements represented in the European Parliament. In function of such a result, Newropeans would hope to obtain over 150 seats in 2014.
Of course, maximum entropy estimates are admissions of ignorance, and therefore an inducement to fill in the blanks with knowledge. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
