| The concept of
nationalism like the concept of nation has two quite distinct meanings. Common to both
definitions is the idea that it is the nation which provides people with their primary
form of belonging and that these nations should be self-governing. People of the world are
thus located within nations, identify with these nation states and political activity is
organized around these nation states. Michael Ignatieff distinguishes two forms of
nationalism. First, ‘civic nationalism’, meaning that all citizens within a
nation state are treated as equal and share political values. Within this sense of
nationalism one would find pluralistic communities acting as one and treating citizens
with equality. It is this sense of nationalism which many thought was emerging after
narrow religious and ethnic struggles of the 19th and early 20th century.
The second sense of nationalism revolves around the equation of ‘people’ with
the nation state. In this formulation the nation or the people exists prior to the state
and in a sense creates the state. In these communities then the nation and sense of
national identification flows from a common characteristic (usually ethnic heritage) and
thus excludes others. This form of nationalism may be less tolerant of difference and can
be found in the German nation state where citizenship continues to be defined in terms of
ethnicity.
The concern that nation states and thus nationalism are increasingly being organized
around ethnic (or other) characteristics are frequently described as the tribalization of
the modern world. Tension between the two meanings of nationalism can be found in
discussions around Quebec's right to self-determination; is civic nationalism at work or
is it ‘people’ nationalism?
National Identity in the Democratic Multi-Cultural State - by John Rex
- Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations, University of Warwick - Abstract - It has been
suggested that there is a crisis of national identity in the advanced welfare states of
Western Europe following post-war immigration.
The aim of this paper is, first of all, to clarify the concept of national identity in
its application to these states prior to this immigration, secondly to analyze the concept
of ethnic identity amongst immigrant ethnic groups, and, finally, to look at the kinds of
institutions which have evolved to determine the relation of immigrant groups to the
established national societies of settlement. - socresonline.org.uk/1/2/1.html#top
John Rex (1996) 'Contemporary Nationalism, Its Causes and Consequences for
Europe - A Reply to Delanty' - socresonline.org.uk/1/4/rex.html
Treanor, P. (1997) 'Structures of Nationalism' - Abstract - The
article reviews briefly the theory of nationalism, and introduces (yet another) definition
of nations and nationalism. Starting from this definition of nationalism as a world order
with specific characteristics, oppositions such as core and periphery,
globalism/nationalism, and realism/idealism are formally rejected.
Nationalism is considered as a purely global structure. Within this, it is suggested,
the number of states tends to fall to an equilibrium number which is itself falling, this
number of states being the current best approximation to a single world state. Within
nationalism variants are associated with different equilibrium numbers: these variants
compete. Together, as the nationalist structure, they formally exclude other world orders.
Such a structure appears to have the function of blocking change, and it is tentatively
suggested that it derives directly from an innate human conservatism.
The article attempts to show how characteristics of classic nationalism, and more
recent identity politics, are part of nationalist structures. They involve either the
exclusion of other forms of state, or of other orders of states, or the intensification of
identity as it exists. - socresonline.org.uk/2/1/8.html |