Nationalism Flashcards
Explain the importance of identity politics in Nationalism
1) Overview
- Political institutions, organisations and causes based on collective Identity
- Aims to secure political freedom for a marginalised community - founded in shared injustice instead of belief systems
2) History
– Civil Rights and the Suffragettes - fostered on questions of origins and features of identities, creating consensus
- Aims to promote the reclamation of identity and pride
– “I do not wish [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.” – Wollstonecraft
- No limit to what movements are based upon identity politics (Indigenous rights, racial rights, etc…) - loose connection of political project
3) Challenges
[I] Intersectionality – No axis of identity can be separate from others. To speak of ‘women’ without distinguishing between class, sexuality, nationality or ethnicity, risks representing only a proportion of the original identified group, typically, those more privileged
[II] Autonomy – Generalisations made about socio-political groups inhibits autonomy. Dominant subgroups may impose their vision of a group’s identity onto all its members.
[III] Variable – Categories of identity are historically contingent. The US example that an individual was characterised as black if they had ‘one drop of black blood.’ If this was applied to modern classifications of race, a significant number of nominally white people should be re-classified.
[IV] Unrepresentative – Race may have little correlation with other categories. Asian-Americans would find the limit of Asian-American identity considering the cultural diversity of Asia.
[V] Reinforces Dependency – Identity politics casts itself in opposition to the status quo. This reinforces the idea that one’s identity is dependent on the opposition, reinforcing hierarchy
Explain the importance of patriotism in Nationalism
1) Overview
= strong sense of attachment to the state in which one lives
- Can be used to offer unity in states that do not contain a single national identity (the US)
2) Rousseau
– Rousseau wrote of a new form of state, held together by patriotism, reinforced by education, and establishing a representative, democratic government
3) Maurras
– Maurras added xenophobia to conservative nationalism, creating a form of nativism
- He believed France had lost its greatness due to the abandonment of heredity monarchy, its separation of Church and state - believed the Church & state should be untied
Explain the importance of the Nation in Nationalism
1) Symbols of the Nation
1) Symbols of the nation
2) Language – Common expressions, distinctive nature and familiar personality that unites a group.
– German nationalism usually values itself on cultural unity with the superiority and survivability of the German language
– The US and UK share English but deem themselves separate nations
3) Religion – Expresses common moral values and spiritual beliefs that are natural areas for a unification.
– Irish Protestant Unionists against Irish Catholic Republicans
– Italy and Poland are majority Catholic, yet not the same nation.
4) Culture – More cultural than biological.
– African American nationalism is based on distinctive history and culture
- Re-calling past glories and future expectations is a common way to preserve nationalism
- The nation is a psycho-political entity; a group who regard themselves as a natural political community, thus is subjective - distinguished by shared loyalty in the form of patriotism
- The Nation should be the central principle of political organisation
- Nations are cultural entities - collections of people bound together by shared values and traditions such as common language, religion and history
- Difficulties such as the absence of land, a small population or lack of economic resources are insignificant if a group insist on demanding national rights
– Kurdish people have nationalist aspirations, despite being geographically dispersed
2) Rousseau
= Nationhood was a force that could create cohesion for new forms of government
3) Locke
= National identity was born of those oppressed who yearned for freedom, such as the Americans.
Explain the importance of the Nation-State in Nationalism
Sovereignty
= govt has a right to rule itself without interference from other bodies
- In modern times, this has been seen through territories trying to gain independence from ‘mother countries’
– 1945-1960, three dozen new states in Asia + Africa achieved independence from European rulers
– US granted Philippines independence = 1946
– Indonesian struggle for independence from the Netherlands (1945–50)
– Vietnamese war against France (1945–54)
– Poland became independent republic = 1918 + 1945
- Links to idea of self-determination
Organic community
- Nation-states are comprised of a group of people who share a common history
- National ties and loyalties are found in all communities
[I] Primordialism
- The nation is rooted in common cultural heritage and language that may long pre-date statehood or national independence and are characterised by emotional attachments
– Anthony Smith – Modern states are updated versions of long-established ethnic communities
[II] Modernist
- National identity is forged in response to changing situations
– Ernest Gellner – Nations came toether in response to conditions and circumstances (Such as industrialisation)
– Benedict Anderson – The nation is an ‘imagined community’, as individuals only ever meet a tiny proportion of those with whom they supposedly share identity
[III] Constructivist
- National identity is an ideological construct, usually serving the interests of powerful groups
– Eric Hobsbawm – Nations are based on ‘invented traditions’, as a belief in historical continuity and cultural purity are a myth created by nationalism itself
Patriotism
= strong sense of attachment + pride in the state you live in
– Some states unity is based on shared political values rather than a single national origin / history - e.g. USA
– South Africa = Nelson Mandela developed idea of ‘national rainbow’ where different national groupings come together to create a new national identity based on their diversity
– In Considerations on the Government of Poland (1771-1772), Rousseau wrote Poland would create a new state held by patriotism
– 3rd clause of French post-revolutionary constitution (1791) = “the source of all sovereignty is essentially in the nation; no body, no individual can exercise authority that does not proceed from it in plain terms”
– Charles Maurras added xenophobia. Like Bismarck and Garibaldi, he appealed to the patriotism of the French as well as their traditional Catholicism to unite them
– Charles de Gaulle = “Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt = “True patriotism springs from a belief in the dignity of the individual, freedom and equality not only for Americans but for all people on earth”
Explain the views of organic community on Nationalism
- Humankind is naturally divided into a collection of nations, each possessing a separate identity.
- National ties and loyalties are found in all societies, they endure, operating at an instinctual level.
1) Primordialism
- The nation is rooted in common cultural heritage and language that may long pre-date statehood or national independence and are characterised by emotional attachments
– Anthony Smith – Modern states are updated versions of long-established ethnic communities
2) Modernist
- National identity is forged in response to changing situations
– Ernest Gellner – Nations came toether in response to conditions and circumstances (Such as industrialisation)
– Benedict Anderson – The nation is an ‘imagined community’, as individuals only ever meet a tiny proportion of those with whom they supposedly share identity
3) Constructivist
- National identity is an ideological construct, usually serving the interests of powerful groups
– Eric Hobsbawm – Nations are based on ‘invented traditions’, as a belief in historical continuity and cultural purity are a myth created by nationalism itself
Explain views on Liberal Nationalism
Liberal nationalism
- Earliest - French Rev
- Liberate + end oppression
- Individuals self-determined
- Inclusive
- 4 pillars:
[I] Nation
- Seen as individuals on an international stage
- Should have human rights
[II] Equality of nation states
- Morally equal, rational individuals should be sovereign over their own mind + body
- Natural rights
– Same Sex Marriage Act (2014 )
– Obama’s Defence of Marriage Act 2015
– Voltaire = “I hate what you say but will defend unto death your right to say it”
[III] Self-determination
- Goal of political nationalism is to form the nation-state
- Can be achieved through unification or independence
- Goal = create independent equal nation states
– Rousseau = “he should not, by any human power, be forced to do what is against his will”
– Mazzini = “hope nothing from foreign governments”
[IV] Rationality
= National self-governance
- Must be based on democracy - consent of people
- Giving consent is an epression of individual’s rationality, so nation-state is rational
– Hegel = “The nation state is Mind in its substantive rationality and immediate actuality — the absolute power on earth”
– Mazzini = “so long as you are ready to die for Humanity, the life of your country is immortal”
Liberal internationalism
- See internationalism as important for peace + world order
- Liberal self-determination gives nations freedom over governance - should seek interdependence with other nations
Positives:
1) Democratic nations would respect the sovereignty of other nations
2) Growing free trade - make cost of war too high
3) International organisations (EU, NATO, UN, ECtHR)
– The leading UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees is engulfed in allegations that twelve of its employees were involved in the Hamas attacks on southern Israel
– Allegations - sexual exploitation and abuse and other misconduct by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic
4) Won’t declare war on each other
“No two countries with McDonald’s franchises have ever gone to war.” – Thomas Friedman
5) Cosmoplitan ideas - moral connection to all - basic rights
– Rousseau = “To assert that the son of a slave is born a slave is to assert that he is not born a man”
– Mill – “Over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign”
– Kant = “ends in themselves” (not means to an end)
– Gladstone = “liberalism is trust in the people”
– Kant - each individual - right to external freedom “by virtue of his humanity.”
- People should not be treated as instruments to achieve a goal but as possessing intrinsic value = Kant = ‘categorical imperative’
Negatives:
1) Ineffectiveness of international organisations = Ukraine, Armenian Genocide, Rwandan Genocide, Sudanese Genocide - unacted on by UN
2) Liberalism not always desired by nations - e.g. Iraq, Afghanistan
3) Idea of politically unified nation has only been seen in homogenous nations - support monoculturalism? e.g. Italy = 75% Catholic, Poland 98% Polish, 93% Catholic
Civic nationalism
- Strand of liberal nationalism
- Based on citizens’ participation in the nation
- Focuses on political institutions and democratic processes
- Provides basis of peaceful, dynamic + diverse society
- Representation stats
– 2003 = National Assembly for Wales - 30/30
- Referendum stats
- US constitution
- 2021 = 74% of Americans named freedom of speech as a right the First Amendment protects
Explain views of Conservative Nationalism
= Seeks to maintain tradition through its history and culture. It’s exclusive
- It’s more irrational; looking at emotional connections to a nation
- Look to maintain monoculturalism as a change in culture threatens the foundations of tradition that the nation is built on
- Can be seen through the following conservative ideas:
1) Rejection of Liberal Nationalism, favouring Exclusivity
- Conservative Nationalism seeks the maintenance of tradition and culture to form the state, rejecting liberal ideas of laissez-faire and multiculturalism
2) Nation State
- Once the nation and the state had been brought together in the nation state, conservatives saw that nationalism could be a force for protecting the state against radicals
- A nation-state is a territorially bounded sovereign state, that is ruled in the name of a community of citizens who identify themselves as a nation
- Due to monoculturalism and ideas of the superiority of host culture, they reject the idea that any individual can identify with any nation
- Nations were formed for safety, efficiency, and the protection of property. A group united will not aim to topple traditional institutions. Nationalism breads order, and authority
3) Organic
- The creation of the state was organic
- In line with Burke’s ideas of little platoons, communities were formed to provide security, meaning and social cohesion
- These evolved into nations with defined hierarchies as those who possessed greater talents rose (natural aristocracy)
4) Order
- Nationalism could be used to protect and enhance the existing social order and traditional institutions
- Agree with the concept of the self-determination of the nation, as the nation guides its own destiny
- Reject individual self-determination due to its promotion of revolutionary thinking that harms the foundations of the nation
5) One Nation
- The unity and identity of the nation is of overriding importance
- Symbols, values, myths, and traditions should be used to nurture a romantic connection to the nation; combating divisions
- As the nation is the superior political entity, the existing nation-state should be something all classes had a vested interest in defending
- A state with a common mythos and identity is unified, thus can better resist threats
- Not all ideas of one nation are applicable as paternalism would advocate the use of foreign aid
– Disraeli argued that a society’s classes were all members of the same national ‘family’
6) Romantic
- State derives its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs
- This includes, symbols and mythos and in primal sense, those who born within its culture
7) Rights of the Nation
- The desire to preserve identity and unity of the nation by preserving the status quo against change or returning to the ‘golden age’ of the nation, based on a romanticised view
- The nation state should promote its own interests
8) Opposition to Supranationalism
- Supranationalism = international bodies have the power to impose their will on nation states
- National institutions should not be weakened by supranational bodies
– Opposition to the EU has been strong among Eurosceptics in the conservative party and was crucial to the rise of UKIP. UKIP sees the EU as a threat to British institutions by limiting the sovereignty of parliament. – Eurozone and European Court of Justice
Examples/scholars:
– Von Herder = “there is only one class in the state”
– Donald Trump
- Trump threatened to remove all 12,000 US troops from Germany in 2018 as Germany made no contribution to their funding within NATO.
- Protection of sovereignty and self-determinism – Rejection of Paris Climate Change Agreement.
- Executive Order ‘Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements’ entails limits on access to asylum, enhanced enforcement along the US-Mexico border, and the construction of a 2,000-mile border wall
Explain what is meant by ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism (or ethnonationalism) = a form of nationalism where the nation and nationality are defined in terms of ethnicity
– Ethnocentric = thinking one’s own group’s ways are superior to others
– Maurras = “A true nationalist places his country above everything.”
(He was a monarchist and loyal to the Catholic Church within French society. He rejected liberal-democratic principles which he believed were contrary to natural inequality.
- The Enlightenment had led to rampant individualism and needed to be corrected with militarism and authoritarianism)
Explain what is meant by imperialism and colonialism
Imperialism and Colonialism
- Imperialism = The policy of extending the rule of an Empire over foreign countries. ‘Imperial rule’
- Colonialism = The settlement of a foreign country via an imperial power causing the separation of the indigenous population from their land
– Correlation between chauvinistic nationalism and imperialist beliefs
- Centres on the chosen people
- This sense of national superiority is within symbols of nationhood
- To be the nation implies a birth-right of dominance
– e.g. The British Empire
– At its height in 1922, it was the largest empire the world had ever seen, covering around a quarter of Earth’s land surface and ruling over 450 million people
Explain what is meant by Radical nationalism and Facism
– Radical Nationalism = Extreme interpretations of nationalist concepts
– Fascism = The idea of a monolithic, regimented nation under the control of an autocratic ruler
- Common characteristic of Fascism are:
- extreme militaristic nationalism
- contempt for democracy and political and cultural liberalism
- a belief in natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites
- and desire to create a “people’s community”, in which individual interests are subordinate to the good of the nation
– e.g Mussolini’s Fascist Italy
- Under the leadership of Mussolini, Italy oversaw brutality in Ethiopia and would fight in the axis powers, defending the persecution of races and the national supremacy of white Europeans and Italian history and culture
Explain what is meant by expansionist nationalism
- Opposed to all aspects of liberal nationalism
- Rejects the right to national self-determination
- Opposed to inclusion, diversity and social progress
- Expansionist nationalism is characterised by the mindset of chauvinism and the language of jingoism
- This is used by leaders who create a scapegoat.
– The Scramble for Africa
- The ‘scramble for Africa’- one aim of the colonising European nations was to ‘civilise’ the African nations.
- In 1914, 90% of Africa had been colonised by European powers
Explain what is meant by Anti-Colonial and Post-Colonial Nationalism
- Anti-colonial nationalism = A group of people previously treated as not part of a nation see themselves as a community deserving of self-determination
- Post-colonial nationalism = A liberated nation exercising nationalist agendas or policy to re-build, re-unify and reignite national spirit
- Indigenous populations should be recognised as nations and therefore able to express their own self-determination. In doing so, they shatter imperialist rule and (re)gain a sense of national pride
– The USA
- In 1776 thirteen American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain.
- The Continental Army would fight off British occupation until the Treaty of Paris 1783
- The new constitution saw a strong national government and identity
Explain what is meant by Black Nationalism
Black nationalism = The mistreatment of black people led to a collective consciousness
- Seeks support for unity and political self-determination for black people, especially in the form of a separate black nation
- Reject accommodationists / gradualism
- Only way to secure black empowerment is to confront white supremacy
– Marcus Garvey
- Founded UNIA, a organisation of black nationalists
- Advocated for “separate but equal” status for persons of African ancestry. They sought to establish independent Black states (Liberia)
Explain what is meant by the Nation State
1) Overview
- The major issue with the concept of a nation state is that it is an ideal:
– Most modern nation states contain elements of different nations and cultures. E.g Belgium is a state where members claim both a culture identity and a national identity
– Some nations do not have a state, for example, the Kurds (over 30 million people, without a state, spread across Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran)
– Some states do not have a nation with a sense of common ties that bind
2) Nation-States and Liberal Nationalism
– The primary aim is to create a world of nation-states endowed with self-determination
– Wilsonian liberalism is associated with the idea that constructing a world of nation-states is the best way of preventing war:
– Woodrow Wilson’s 1918 Declaration
—> “This war had its roots in the disregard of the rights of small nations”
– Wilson’s ideals have inspired the creation of international organisations such as the League of Nations 1919 and the UN in 1945. Nations needed to be unified within the new internationalised world order
3) Nation States and Chauvinistic Nationalism
= Chauvinistic nationalists believe that only some nations can benefit from nation-statehood; others should be willing colonies
– 2014: Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. Crimea is Ukrainian under law, yet Putin sees it as a strategic entity
– Russia sees themselves as the owner of Ukraine, with its will being of superior importance to any affairs of the Crimea. Russia wants to block Ukraine from joining NATO to restrict western presence in eastern Europe. This had involved into a full-sc
Explain what is meant by the concept of the Nation
The Concept of a nation
= An essential feature of nationalism is that people feel a strong sense of national identity
- May be compromised by other identities, such as religion or ethnicity, but nationalism is seen as a form of consciousness
- It can be based on common identities:
1) History
- An objective factor
- Conservative nationalism focused on share traditions, history and culture
- They believe in creating a common bond within a nation through its history
– Herder urged a revival of German nationalism, based on a romantic mythology of the people’s historical roots - referred to people with a strong cultural unity as Volk and the spirit that bound them as Volkgeist – ‘The spirit of the people’.
2) Culture
- Culture also includes a shared history
- The British are a multinational people, made up of several ethnic groups. In Britain there is a strong sense of cultural and historic identity
– e.g, the traditions in the arts, pride in their history and a strong set of values
3) Language
- A common language can be used as a criterion for claiming rights to nationhood
– French originally a tribal distinction (Franks), distinguish themselves largely through language
– Fichte saw the nation as a cultural reality, based on a common language - believed a people, united by history, language and a strong sense of patriotism could achieve great progress in terms of economic and intellectual civilisation
- rejected liberal nationalism as it weakened the collective will by emphasising freedom
4) National Symbols
- Use of national symbols is to provide the nation with unity and identity of the nation
- Symbols, values, myths, memories, and tradition are used to nurture a romantic connection to the nation and combat division like gender, class, age or wealth
– Conservative nationalist use the state and associated institutions such as the monarchy as a source of unity that embodies the spirit of the nation
– Anniversaries of historic victories, or birth dates of significant figures from the past, historical symbols, commemorate the unique nature of the nation’s culture and foster national unity
