Nationalism Flashcards
Gellner: Modernisation/pre-nation
Agrarian societies of C.17th and earlier had a different set of identities. Elites were separated from the masses, and have much more in common with elites in other countries than with the ruled classes within their country (e.g. the latin language, and the unifying network of intermarriage)
Ruled classes had no national culture either- divided into many local communities without much interaction between them. The ‘us’ and ‘them’ distinction was at the level of people they actually knew.
No incentive for ruling classes to impose cultural homogeneity on masses- were there such homogeneity, some might think that a challenge to the elites would be more possible as people could be mobilized
a) Modernization Gellner: universal literacy is necessary for process of modernization, education confers identity to everyone. So people need generic employment training (mass literacy) for the IR to happen. Education system provides universal literacy, and through this a shared national identity. Bc the state imposes this education
Problems: doesn’t explain nationalism in pre- and post-industrial societies
CA2: if you read the book, it’s quite ambiguous as to what the mechanisms really are. Leads on to:
Anderson: Print capitalism/pre-nation
Anderson: personal loyalties persisted instead of national loyalties. People at the bottom had a personal loyalty to the person above them, and so on until the top. Form of proto-nationalism in imagined religious communities (e.g. Christendom), but these didn’t coincide with nations and kinship was more important.
b) Anderson: print capitalism: a nation is ‘imagined’ bc the members of the smallest nation won’t meet the others…. Modernization theory also, earlier chronologically to Gellners: In order to expand profits, printers start printing books/newspapers in vernacular (not just Latin- so more people can read them). Why this creates nationalism:
1. Unified field of communication
2. Mass reading publics slow linguistic change and give an idea of permanence to the language
3. These linguistic materials create the idea of an imagined community- one thinks those reading the same material are similar to one
Problem: why is it this aspect of modernisation but not another?
CA2: who imagined these communities? Did someone pick which symbols matter?
Hobsbawm
c) Hobsbawm/Sambanis et al: ‘invented’ nationalism. Ruling classes wanted to increase the power of the state.
Sambanis et. al. 2015: Victory in war enhances a nation’s status, and thereby makes citizens more likely to see themselves as an in-group.
More direct take on Gellner’s argument hat elites are choosing to promote nationalism for their own purposes- to increase power of state and impose their will on the masses
Marxist take- —
It does seem that myths and symbols are invented- Hobsbawm. Many symbols aren’t really that old, and were often invented by individuals (Wales case- e.g. Welsh dragon flag, daffodils in Wales, Welsh national dress (completely made up for women))
Problem with Marxist take: Does nationalism here benefit the ruling classes though? The Welsh symbols were created almost accidentally. Hard to see how they were created to benefit ruling class CA2: perhaps people did have something in common before the symbols- language. Language seems to be a more important factor. Thinkers in this tradition acknowledge that preexisting bonds are necessary for symbols to take hold
Smith
d) Smith- Ethnic-symbolic approaches. Nationalism is (mainly) based on earlier ethnic identities, and symbols associated with that ethnic identity. You need a pre-existing history in the group (which doesn’t necessarily have to make much sense), which can be forged into a NI
Most important- language groups and pre-existing ethnic communities which coincide.
Modernisation may have increased the strength of these ethnic identities, but the impact of nationalist ideologies was more important: there was ‘nothing much new but the ideology’
A nation is ‘“a named population sharing a historic territory, common myths and historical memories, a mass public culture, a common economy and common legal rights and duties for its members” (Smith)’.
Benefits:
earlier ethnic configurations help us to see where we can expect modern nationalism. E.g. ancient Greek
Helps explain how symbolic goals are related to language
Helps to understand the popularity of nationalism- why its appealing and why masses are easily mobilised.
Solt 2011
Diversionary nationalism
high levels of inequality encourage elites to foment nationalism to divert attention (v strong empirical relationship). Might be thought to support Hobsbawn’s argument that elites produce NI
CA: But which direction is the causal arrow? Perhaps people who identify more with the nation will identify less with their social class
[they only consider ethnic nationalism, not civic nationalism. It also (on one measure) uses measure of nationalism that relate to individuals’ feelings about the country’s achievements in sport, science, the arts etc. this is not so closely linked to nationalism as exclusive and ethnic (or civic). In short, it seems to be a less effective measure of the concept than Smith and Jones’]
Wimmer and Feinstein 2010
The rise of the nation-state across the world
Strength of state pre-C.20th correlated with nationalism. Education, illiteracy, modernisation doesn’t make much difference to NI formation- empires breaking up more important
CA: T: a good paper, but it doesn’t tell us why nations replaced empires in the C.20th specifically, rather than new empires forming. This answers a slightly different question. Doesn’t answer why the first nation states came about.
S: Be careful with how they define a nation-state.
Kunovich 2009 (RETURN)
Increasing higher education (T&H)- critical thinkers are more able to identify themselves with a larger group of people and see ethnic forms as parochial. This is confirmed in K’s findings- (Kunovich 2009)
Globalisation involves external cultures to be merged with local ones (with much mediation), and can provide additional material by which national identities can be renegotiated.
It also emphasises the independence of the individual over tradition and authority and thus individuals with greater exposure to such should prefer civic NI.
From slides: ‘Sample (ISSP 2003) includes Venezuela, Philippines, Uruguay and several then recently democratised CE European countries. They are relatively ethnically nationalist, and so drive the cross-national variation.’
Hiers et. al. 2017
Thesis: countries that have experienced more violent conflict or lost territory and sovereignty developed ethnic (rather than civic) forms of nationalism and thus show higher levels of anti-immigration sentiment today
Scope: 33 European countries
We combine two dimensions of geopolitical threat into a scale: loss of territory or independence in the past and recurrent internal or external conflict.
The discourse of nationalist parties is increased by geopolitical threat, but this doesn’t cause anti-immigrant sentiment- only the ethnic nationalism itself does.
Dogen 1994
The Decline of Nationalisms within Western Europe
declines in nationalist sentiment can be seen by comparing European textbooks and media sources from the 1930s vis a vis the 1980s- there does appear to be a profound value shift between the two cases.
People are in particular much less ethnically nationalist- less confidence in military, willingness to fight for country, pride in nation, more identification with a European community, more trust in other Eu countries
This trend is seen in certain other cases (e.g. Japan) but not Eastern Europe- countries that were occupied in the Cold War.
Cold War both reducing Eu nations’ confidence in militaries and engendering European solidarity
Tilley and Heath 2007
Finding: in the UK, a consistent decline in subsequent generations since cohorts born in the 1910s- with the exception of ‘Thatcher’s children’. ‘We argue that the major driver of this decline of pride in Britain is not change in the composition of the British population (though declining religious identifications and increasing education are certainly important), but rather a generational shift in sentiments.’
Generations remain fairly constant in their levels of nationalism over time, suggesting that socialisation may be the main factor. Or in other words, inter-generational differences much larger than shifts in a single generation’s attitudes over time
Other factors: increase in higher education, times of internal turmoil e.g. govt-trade union battles, EEC membership in the 70s
Move from ethnic to civic nationalism- pride in the military or in imperial history now seen as more intolerant, and younger people invest feelings of national pride in civic ideals like traditions of democracy and the nation state.
Dimitrova et. al. 2016
Thesis: national identity is strengthened the longer it exists.
S’ CA: Other factors- Germany being a pretty new nation but with a strong NI.
CAs: [survivorship bias objection- countries that developed nationalism earlier and had stronger national identities (e.g. because they were better at fighting wars) were more likely to survive in that form? Or perhaps it wasn’t the longevity that mattered but countries that were stronger economically, politically, and militarily were more likely to develop long lasting and strong NIs?]
[they do control for some things- see table. But not historical GDP?]
[they seem to focus only on the ‘very proud’ category in their main analysis?]
[how reliable are expert surveys?]
