Nation States and State Nations Flashcards
What is formative nationalism? What is prestige nationalism? What is expansive nationalism?
Formative nationalism is where people with shared identity and culture form a national group.
Prestige nationalism is where people join a distinct national grouping to advance the group’s situation.
Expansive nationalism is nationalism with an imperial aspect, aiming to transpose this onto other groups.
What is a state?
A state is the structures of government that exercise political and administrative authority.
What example is there of a nation existing without a state and a state existing without a nation?
Nation without state: Kurdish people in Turkey and Northern Syria.
State without nation: Pakistan, given divisions between Punjabis, Balochis, Pashtuns, Sindhis.
What is a nation state?
A nation state is whereby boundaries inscribed upon territory and government structure broadly align with a national identity and nationalism.
What is a state nation? How can the stability of state nations be described and why?
A state nation is a politically-bound community lacking in national identity or nationalism to unify its population. State nations can be seen as unstable and prone to domestic conflicts, as they lack internal legitimacy.
What is trans-boundary affiliation?
Trans-boundary affiliation is where a person within one nation state identifies with a cultural or national identity from outside this nation state.
Explain the Westphalian System
The Westphalian System is the system of international order set up following the Thirty Years War. This emphasises individual state sovereignty and the principle of non-interference.
What criticisms can be made of the Westphalian System?
The Westphalian system arguably presents a Western-centric view of the world, within which non-Western states have to exist.
How can the post-colonial states system be seen as problematic? Give an example
The postcolonial system of states saw lines artificially placed on maps, dividing up nations into artificial political communities (eg. Radcliffe line between India and Pakistan). This creates unstable states that lack legitimacy with their own populations.
Explain Ayoob’s concept of ‘dual pressures’ as part of his theory of Subaltern Realism
Ayoob believes that governments within postcolonial states are torn in 2 directions - either pursuing the needs of their domestic population, which may jeopardise the international order, or pursuing their own needs within the international system in order to maintain roles as governing elites and power this brings.
How do Rejai and Enloe explain the concept of nationalism?
Rejai and Enloe explain nationalism to be ‘an awareness or feeling of membership of a larger group’
In state nations, is nationalism constructed from the bottom up or from the top down?
State nations exhibit a top down form of nationalism, stemming from the governing apparatus and being transplanted onto the population that it governs.
How can it be argued that states are not the sole important actor within IR in terms of institutions? Give examples
Non-state actors are increasing in importance, such as the G7, G20, EU, NATO, WTO, IMF, World Bank, etc. All of these operate above the level of states and have major influence on international activities.
How can it be argued that states are not the only important actors in IR in terms of substate actors?
Substate actors can also be influential on international events… ISIS, the Houthis, Hamas, etc. are all examples of extremist organisations with a major impact on IR, yet are not states as such.
