Nations and Nationalism

1
Nations and Nationalism

• Lecture, 7.12.05

2
Definitions

• The term nationalism is generally used to
  describe two phenomena (1) the attitude that the
  members of a nation have when they care about
  their national identity and (2) the actions that
  the members of a nation take when seeking to
  achieve (or sustain) self-determination.
• (1) raises questions about the concept of nation
  (or national identity), which is often defined in
  terms of common origin, ethnicity, or cultural
  ties, and while an individuals membership in a
  nation is often regarded as involuntary.
• (2) raises questions about self-determination
  understood as having full statehood with complete
  authority over domestic and international affairs.

3
The Concept of Nation

• In its general form, the issue of nationalism
  concerns the mapping between the ethno-cultural
  domain (featuring ethno-cultural groups or
  nations) and the domain of political
  organization.
• Pro-nationalist thinkers have therefore been
  elaborating theories of ethnicity, culture,
  nation and state.
• Nationalist claims typically are focused upon the
  non-voluntary community of common origin,
  language, tradition and culture, so that in the
  classical view an ethno-nation is a community of
  origin and culture, including prominently a
  language and customs.
• Nationality refers to a common ethno-cultural
  background which determines one's membership in
  the community.

4
Fundaments of Nationalist Claims

• Traditional the spirit of a people,collective
  mentality, national character as forms of
  life and of feeling.
• Modern National identity (real or imagined)

5
Identification of state and people

• Nationalism, translated into politics, implies
  the identification of the state or nation with
  the people.
• In the age of nationalism and since then the
  principle was generally recognized that each
  nationality should form a stateits stateand
  that the state should include all members of that
  nationality.

6
Culture and Politics

• From the end of the 18th century on, the
  nationalization of education and public life went
  hand in hand with the nationalization of states
  and political loyalties.
• Poets and scholars began to emphasize cultural
  nationalism first. They reformed the mother
  tongue, elevated it to the rank of a literary
  language, and delved deep into the national past.
  
• Thus they prepared the foundations for the
  political claims for national statehood soon to
  be raised by the people in whom they had kindled
  the spirit.
• National poets, national writers, national
  composers become the first heroes of nations.
• Under the influence of the new theories of the
  sovereignty of the people and the rights of man,
  the people (as carries of national culture)
  replaced the king as the centre of the nation.

7
History 18th century

• The first full manifestation of modern
  nationalism occurred in 17th-century England, in
  the Puritan revolution.
• The nationalism of the 18th century had a strong
  enthusiasm for liberty, its humanitarian
  character, its emphasis upon the individual and
  his rights and upon the human community as above
  all national divisions (French revolution,
  American revolution)

8
History 19th century

• German nationalism began to stress instinct
  against reason the power of historical tradition
  against rational attempts at progress and a more
  just order the historical differences between
  nations rather than their common aspirations.
• One of the consequences of World War I was the
  triumph of nationalism in central and eastern
  Europe.

9
Asian and African Nationalism

• Nationalism began to appear in Asia and Africa
  after World War I
• It produced such leaders as Kemal Atatürk in
  Turkey, Sa'd Pasha Zaghul in Egypt, Ibn Sa'ud in
  the Arabian peninsula, Mahatma Gandhi in India,
  and Sun Yat-sen in China.
• New States Rapid increase of nation states in
  the world since WW I.
• Many new nations, all sharing the same pride in
  independence, faced difficulties.

10
Sun Yat-sen (1866 - 1925)

• Leader of the Chinese Revolution
• 1911 Qing Dynasty is overthrown
• Revolutionary Ideology Three Principles of the
  People (Sanmin Zhuyi)
• 1) Nationalism (MINzu)
• 2) Democracy (MINquan)
• 3) Socialism (MINsheng)
• Problem Minorities, territory

11
The Debate on Nationalism I

• Pronationalist Arguments
• The first set of arguments defends the claim that
  national communities have a high value, often
  seen as non-instrumental and independent of the
  wishes and choices of their individual members,
  and argues that they should therefore be
  protected by means of state and official statist
  policies.
• The second set encompasses arguments from the
  requirements of justice, rather independent from
  substantial assumptions about culture and
  cultural values. They appeal to circumstances
  that would make nationalist policies reasonable
  (or permissible or even mandatory), such as the
  fact that a large part of the world is organized
  into nation states or the circumstances of group
  self-defense or of redress of past injustice that
  might justify nationalist policies.

12
The Debate on Nationalism II

• Critical Arguments
• The alleged special duties towards one's
  ethno-national culture can interfere, and often
  do interfere, with individuals right to
  autonomy.
• Most ethno-national communities are divers, which
  can be thwarted by the homogeneity of a central
  national culture.
• A widespread variant of nationalism is the
  invidious particularistic form claiming rights
  for one's own people and denying them to others.