INTRODUCTION TO POLITICS

LECTURES
SESSION 7
NATIONS AND NATIONALISM
 DEFINING THE NATION
• WHAT CONSTITUTES A NATION?
• WHAT ARE ITS ORIGIN AND CHARACTERISTICS FEATURES?
• WHAT DISTINGUISHES THE NATION FROM ANY OTHER
SOCIAL GROUP, SAY, ETHNICITY OR RACE?
• DIFFICULT TO DEFINE THE TERM ‘NATION’ OR NATIONALISM’
AS BOTH ARE COMPLEX CONCEPTS
• ‘CONSIST OF A MIXTURE OF OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE
FEATURES, A BLEND OF CULTURAL AND POLITICAL
CHARACTERISTICS’ (Heywood, 2007).
 DEFINING THE NATION
• OBJECTIVE DEFINITIONS:
• NATIONS ARE CULTURAL ENTITIES
• OR GROUPS OF PEOPLE WHO SHARE THE SAME ; LANGUAGE, ETHNICITY,
RELIGION, TERRITORY, COMMON HISTORY, SHARED DESCENT (ANCESTRY,
KINSHIP), COMMON CULTURE, ETC.
• FOR EXAMPLE: “A HISTORICALLY CONSTITUTED, STABLE COMMUNITY OF
PEOPLE, FORMED ON THE BASIS OF A COMMON LANGUAGE, TERRITORY,
ECONOMIC LIFE, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MAKE-UP MANIFESTED IN A COMMON
CULTURE”
• SUCH FACTORS SHAPE THE POLITICS OF NATIONALISM
• E.g. SOMALIA
• HOWEVER, NOT ENOUGH TO DEFINE A NATION USING SUBJECTIVE FACTORS ALONE
• ALL NATIONS ENCOMPASS A MEASURE OF CULTURAL, ETHNIC AND RACIAL DIVERSITY. E.G, SWISS,
UK, ETC
• HENCE, NATIONS CAN BE DEFINED SUBJECTIVELY
 DEFINING THE NATION
• Subjective definitions:
• DEFINES THE NATION AS A ‘PSYCHO-POLITICAL CONSTRUCT’
• A NATION IN THIS SENSE, PERCEIVES ITSELF AS A DISTINCT POLITICAL,
RATHER THAN CULTURAL COMMUNITY
• THIS DISTINGUISHES FROM ETHNIC GROUPS FOR EXAMPLE, WHICH LACKS
COLLECTIVE POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS.
• NATIONS ON THE OTHER HAND HAVE ASPIRATIONS TO ACHIEVE AND
MAINTAIN POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE AND STATEHOOD.
• THE DEFINITION OF NATION/NATIONALISM IS FURTHER PROBLEMATISED
BY THE DIFFERENT WAYS IN WHICH THE TERMS HAVE BEEN VIEWED
• TWO CONTRASTING VIEWS HAVE BEEN INFLUENTIAL
• FIRSTLY AS CULTURAL COMMUNITIES (EMPHASISING ETHNIC TIES AND
LOYALTIES) AND SECONDLY AS POLITICAL COMMUNITIES (EMPHASISING
CIVIL BONDS AND ALLEGIANCES)
 NATIONS AS CULTURAL COMMUNITIES
• EMPHASISES THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CERTAIN INNATE CHARACTERS
OF EACH NATIONAL GROUP
• THESE CHARACTERS ARE DETERMINED AND NURTURED BY SHARING
A NATURAL ENVIRONMENT WHICH SHAPES LIFESTYLES AND
ATTITUDES OF A PEOPLE
• THESE VIEWS OF NATIONALISM WERE INFLUENCED BY THE WRITINGS
OF HERDER
• EMPHASISES THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE, AN AWARENESS AND
APPRECIATION OF NATIONAL TRADITIONS AND COLLECTIVE
MEMORIES
 NATIONS AS CULTURAL COMMUNITIES
• THE ‘CULTURALISM’ PERPECTIVE OF NATIONS SEE NATIONS AS ‘NATURAL’ AND
‘ORGANIC’
• SIMILAR VIEWS WERE ALSO ADVANCED BY MODERN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGISTS
• THIS VIEW SEES PEOPLE AS HAVING THE NATURAL INCLINATION TO FORM AND IDENTIFY
THEMSELVES WITH GROUPS TO GAIN SECURITY, IDENTITY AND A SENSE OF BELONGING
• NATIONALISM HAS ALSO BEEN LINKED TO NEW FORMS OF CULTURAL COHESIONS
THROUGH MODERNISATION AND INDUSTRIALISATION (GELNER)
• THIS VIEW WAS CHALLENGED BY SMITH (1986) WHO CLAIMS NATIONS TO BE
‘HISTORICALLY EMBEDDED’ AND ROOTED IN COMMON CULTURAL HERITAGE AND
LANGUAGE
• MEINECKE’S DISTINCTION BETWEEN ‘CULTURAL AND POLITICAL NATIONS’
• SEES CULTURAL NATIONS AS EXCLUSIVE GROUPS THAT SHARE A COMMON DESCENT
• BREEDS INSULAR AND REGRESSIVE FORMS OF NATIONALISM
• CULTURAL HOMOGENEITY/HETEROGENEITY
 NATIONS AS POLITICAL COMMUNITIES
• THIS VIEW EMPHASISES CIVIC LOYALTIES AND POLITICAL ALLEGIANCES
RATHER THAN CULTURAL TIES
• IN THIS REGARD, A NATION IS CONSIDERED TO BE CONSISTING OF A
GROUP OF PEOPLE BOUND TOGETHER PRIMARILY BY SHARED
CITIZENSHIP
• VIEW TRACED BACK TO JJ ROUSSEAU AND HIS IDEAS ON
SOVEREIGHNTY AND THE GENERAL WILL
• ROUSSEAU’S FORM OF NATIONALISM EMERGED FROM THE FRENCH
REVOLUTION AND WERE LINKED TO THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERTY,
EQUALITY AND FRATERNITY
 NATIONS AS POLITICAL COMMUNITIES
• THE IDEA OF NATIONS AS POLITICAL RATHER THAN CULTURAL ENTITIES
HAVE BEEN SUPPORTED BY A NUMBER OF NATIONALISM THEORIES
• HOBSBAWN (1983) CONSIDERED NATIONS TO BE ‘INVENTED TRADITIONS’
• ANDERSON (1983) PORTRAYED THE MODERN NATION AS AN ARTEFACT
AND AS ‘IMAGINED COMMUNITIES’
• THESE THEORIES SHARE MARXISTS BELIEFS THAT NATIONALIM IS A SPECIES
OF BOURGEOSI IDEOLOGY
• THIS VIEW CLAIMS THAT THE RULING CLASS COUNTERS THE THREAT OF
SOCIAL REVILUTION BY ENSURING THAT NATIONAL LOYALTY IS STRONGER
THAN CLASS SOLIDARITY
• ANTI-COLONIAL NATIONALISM
 THE DIFFERENT FORMS OF NATIONALISM
• CONTROVERSY SURROUNDS THE POLITICAL CHARACTER OF
NATIONALISM
• SEEN SIMULTANEUSLY AS BOTH A PROGRESSIVE/LIBERATING FORCE
AND IRRATIONA/REACTIOANRY FORCE
• HENCE, NATIONALISM IS NOT A SINGLE COHERENT POLITICAL
PHENOMENON
• THERE, RATHER, EXISTS A VARIETY BUT COMPLEX FORMS OF
NATIONALISMS THAT CUT ACROSS DIFFERENT IDEOLOGIES
• NATIONALISM IS EXPRESSED IN THE FOLLWING PRINCIPAL POLITICAL
VIEWS:
 LIBERAL NATIONALISM
• CONSIDERED THE CLASSIC FORM OF EUROPEAN LIBERALISM AND
DATES BACK TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• CLEAREST EXPRESSION FOUND IN WILSON’S 14 POINTS
• BASED ON THE CORE ASSUMPTION THAT HUMANKIND IS NATURALLY
DIVIDED INTO A COLLECTION OF NATIONS
• KEY THEME IS THAT IT LINKS THE IDEA OF THE NATION WITH A BELIEF
IN POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY
• CENTRAL THEME IS ITS COMMITMENT TO NATIONAL SELF-
DETERMINATION AND ITS GOAL IS TO CONSTRUCT A NATION STATE
 LIBERAL NATIONALISM
• DOES NOT UPHOLD THE INTEREST OF ONE NATION AGAINST THE
OTHER
• HENCE, A MECHANISM FOR SECURING A PEACEFUL WORLD ORDER
• LN IS SEEN AS A FORCE THAT PROMOTES UNITY WITHIN EACH
NATION AND BROTHERHOOD AMONGST NATIONS ON THE BASIS OF
MUTUAL RESPECT
• INSPIRED BY THE UNIVERSALIST VIEWS OF LIBERALISM
• HAVE BEEN ACCUSED OF BEING NAICE AND ROMANTIC AND THE
PROPENSITY FOR NATION-STATES TO CONSIST OF FRAGILE
COMMUNITIES
 CONSERVATIVE NATIONALISM
• IS CONCERNED WITH SOCIAL COHESION AND PUBLIC ORDER AND
NATIONAL PATRIOTISM
• TENDS TO EQUATE NATIONALISM TO TRADITIONALISM
• MORE ESTABLISHED IN DEVELOPED NATION-STATES
• INSPIRED BY THE VIEW THAT THE NATION IS UNDER THREAT EITHER FROM
WITHIN AND WITHOUT (CLASS ANTAGONSIMS AND IMMIGRATION)
• ALSO SEE A THREAT FROM SUPRANATIONAL BODIES AND GLOBALISATION
• INWARD LOOKING AND INSULAR
• CRITICISED FOR PROMOTING INTOLERANCE AND BIGOTRY AND FOR
LEGITIMISING RACIALIAM AND XENOPHOBIA
 EXPANSIONIST NATIONALISM
• HAS AN AGGRESSIVE, MILITARISTIC AND EXPANSIONIST CHARACTER
• THE ANTITHESIS OF LIBERAL NATIONALISM
• LINKED TO IMPERIALISM AND SOMALI IRRIDENTISM
• ALSO LINKED TO BOTH WORLD WARS
• ITS EXTREME FORM IS MANIFESTED IN ‘INTEGRAL NATIONALISM’
(MAURRAS) WHICH PROCLAIMS THE OVERRIDING IMPORTANCE OF THE
NATION OVER THE INDIVIDUAL
• EXTREMELY UNDEMOCRATIC AND ASSOCIATED WITH CHAUVINISTIC BELIEF
• ALSO SEE OTHER NATIONS ASN THREATS
• RESULT IS A CLEAR DISTINCTION BETWEEN US AND THEM (ANTI-SEMITISM)
 ANTICOLONIAL NATIONALISM
• INSPIRED BY THE IDEAS OF NATTIOANL SELF-DETERMINATION
• COMMON AMONG AFRICAN AND ASIAN NATIONS
• LED TO MANY ARMED STRUGGLES
 THE NATION STATE: CHALLENGES
• LATE 20TH CENTURY SAW CLAIMS ABOUT THE END OF NATIONALISM
• NOT SUPERSEDED BY SUPERNATIONAL TIES, BUT TASK HAS BEEN
COMPLETED
• WE NOW LIVE IN A WORLD OF NATION STATES
• POWERFUL FORCES HAS HOWEVER EMERGED THAT THREATEN THE
EXISTENCE OF THE NATION-STATE
• THE CRISIS OF THE NATION STATE IS CAUSED BY A COMBINATION OF
BOTH INTERNAL PRESSURES AND EXTERNAL THREATS
• THE THREAT OF GLOBAL CULTURE