Britons’ decision to exit European Union is a reflection of their socio – cultural specificities and their expectations for an envisioned life in United Kingdom. When analyzing the Brexit decision, there should be considered the tight vote, as 52% of the voters opted for leaving EU, while 48% voted for remaining (Erlanger para 4). This score indicates that leaving EU was not a unanimous decision, but one that reflected the diverse interests and reasons of Britons. Connected with the liberal ideas coming out of enlightenment, this liberal exercise of reasoning echoes Kant’s urge to reason, breaking free from religious canons (Kramnick 165).
The tense vote also reflects the fact that Britons focused on two different aspects that were promoted in the liberalism enlightenment, respectively the development of a commercial society, based on a civilized complexity, versus the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as Jefferson embedded it (Kramnick 167 - 168). These aspects were not contradictory back in the late Middle Eve, but they were complementary to exercising liberalism. They are still complementary today. Despite this complementarity, the Britons chose between the two, as one aspect were more important than the other for them.
More specifically, developing a commercial society based on a civilized complexity meant, back in the times of Smith or Ferguson, the abolition of religion, race and inequality between nations that would allow commercial exchanges between individuals regardless their regions, race or religions (Kramnick 166-167). Applied to the nowadays Brexit event, the commercial society based on a civilized complexity could be a reference to the free trade market, allowing the free commerce of goods and services across the European Union (Dhingra, Ottaviano, Sampson & Van Reenen 2). A counterargument for this association between an enlightenment specific utopian commercial society and the nowadays European Union free trade agreement is the fact that other nations from other nations (Asia, Africa or South America) do not have access to this market, hence the Eurocentrism historical theory that Europeans are superior to other nations (Marks 54).
Eurocentrism and the rise of the West, referring to developed economies like England, France, Spain or United States, the great colonizers, could be in fact an explanation for the vote to leave EU (Marks 58). Considering the fact that more and more immigrants landed in UK from other European countries, specifically from the Eastern European region making UK’s population to triple from 0.9 million in 1995 to 3.3 million in 2015, Brexit is a natural expression of stopping these high migration rates (Wadsworth, Dhingra, Ottaviano & Van Reenen 2). This decision is both a reflection of a socio – cultural superiority associated with the rise of the West ideology, but also the expression of the liberal ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (Kramnick 168; Marks 58).
The democratic revolutions from the 17th to 19th century achieved the societal change, shifting the strict religious autocracy with tolerant religion, replacing the supremacy of God and the king with the perfection of man, achieving progress through science and technology (Kramnic 166 - 168). The Britons’ decision to leave EU was unexpected from various perspectives, but its immediate effect is change. Departing from the values and order of the EU will allow UK to explore new ways for achieving progress and equaling the 17th – 18th century industrial revolution. However, the path that UK will choose it is yet unknown and a new industrial, cultural, or social revolution, although expected, it is not certain.
Returning to the rise of the West ideology that shaped in the era of discoveries, there should be stressed that the concept of European superiority (Eurocentrism) referred to powerful powers that were capable not solely to discover and colonize new worlds, but also to enrich the European culture through literature, philosophy or science. In this sense, Marks (58 - 59) remarks that the nation states such as England, France, Germany or Netherlands were separating from the rest of the world, because they were able to modernize first and to accumulate wealth, while the other regions of the world lived in poverty. The superiority of the Western European powers begun with the late marriage that decreased the number of children per family and allowed families to prosper (Marks 60). While this aspect happened in the imperial countries, the other countries continued to strive in poverty. Marxist historians describe this reality as “economic determinism”, specifically to refer to rich nations’ exploitation of the economically backward nations like Native Americans or Africans (Davis 103).
For preserving their prosperity, the western colonial countries initiated commercial trades and agreements that protected the democratic exchange of goods of the powerful countries, while increasing the gap between rich and poor countries, as the rich nations were exploiting the poor ones (Marks 51).
For United Kingdom, an important representative of EU with an impressive imperial legacy, joining the company of other great European powers and United States, as a partner in G7, reflected its ideals of supremacy. Once other countries, like the so – called A8 that comprised developing economies like Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia or Poland, joined EU in 2004 (Wadsworth et al. 4) the supremacy of the Western powers was threatened. As United Kingdom saw its legacy threatened and its territory more aggressively populated by non – Britons, the mere principle of prosperity was at risk, hence the necessity of the referendum that resulted in UK leaving EU.
However, looking at the UK’s leaving EU solely from the local British perspective solely offers a truncated reality. Marks (59) introduces the concept of conjuncture to define how remote and independent events, happening in different regions of the world, can interconnect and become “globally important”. History can inform the present on how things stay and how they will develop, but as Jefferson stated, in order to achieve progress one must “look forward for improvement of the human mind” (Kramnic 168). In this sense, looking at Greece’s history, there can be observed that it was a great conqueror in Antiquity, under Alexander the Great, forcing the Hellenization of its Arabic or African territories (Price 70). Nevertheless, today these territories are independent from Greece and the Hellenization process did not hampered their national identities. A parallel can be sensed between the Ancient Greece and the nowadays European Union. Although not forcing the Europeanization, this is a current fostered across EU through its EU – centered interregionalism, but also abroad the coalition, stretching the EU values towards Asia (Maier - Knapp 222).
Observing UK’s exit from EU from a global perspective, political, economic, social, cultural or environmental consequences will mark this change. UK will no longer have to sustain the Europeanization values, and instead can become more isolated and self – centered as a non – coalition country. Although from a cultural perspective this might not seem as a significant outcome, it might lead to a cultural revolution with UK pursuing a particularism culture that might attract other formerly imperial nations (Maier - Knapp 233). Politically, this implies that other countries might exit EU, attracted by the decision of a strong nation like UK to exit the coalition. Further on, as other countries would exit EU, the entity would weaken and the principle of the free market, under the EU values, would be dismantled. Socially, the migration wave would stagger, as citizens of other EU countries would have to go through bureaucratic processes of visa and employment regulations for coming to work in UK (Global Counsel 18). Economically, UK’s exit from EU signals the uncertainties in the participation to the free market, implying that there will be applied taxes to both import and export with countries from EU (Allen, Olterman, Borger & Nelsen para 4).
The causes and effects of the Brexit are complex and deserve a more thorough investigation and analysis. History is important for explaining conjuncture events that can have global impacts, but the key to progress is to look into the future. For the case of UK, the 17th – 19th century revolutions that marked the enlightenment and shaped liberalism can explain the necessity of Brexit, but for reaching further improvements, new revolutions, social, cultural, economic, or political are required.
Works Cited
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