nationalism: thinkers

Question 1

Jean Jacques Rousseau summarised

Answer 1

• liberal nationalism
• the idea that people did not have to be ruled by monarchs, that they could unite politically and create a civic nation
• governments should be based on the collective (national) will of the people, and a state where there is active participation of the people is the only legitimate form of government (civic nationalism)

Question 2

Johann Gottfried von Herder summarised

Answer 2

• conservative nationalism
• the idea that each nation needs to create its own unique beauty and identity to help unite its people; this can be through folklore of traditional legends passed down through generations (cultural nationalism)
• it is the people (volk) themselves who form the national culture and every nation has its own special and unique spirit (volksgeist)

Question 3

Giuseppe Mazzini summarised

Answer 3

• liberal and post/anti colonialism
• the idea that nations should become republics and gain self determination
• however, this should be done with a ‘national spirit’ in mind and develop a cultural community
• the existence of many nations would help promote peace
• the creation of nation states is the only way to ensure freedom and the only way for people to truly express themselves (nationhood)

Question 4

Charles Maurras summarised

Answer 4

• expansionist nationalism
• developed an idea of integral nationalism, where the identity of an individual is lost as he submits to the identity of the nation
• this can lead to more militaristic tendencies and desire for war, as well as a totalitarian state
• nations should focus on maintaining a strong military in order to protect their own interests (militarism)
• nations, not communities or individuals, are the most important

Question 5

Marcus Garvey summarised

Answer 5

• pan africanism (anti/post colonial nationalism)
• all Africans, be they in Africa, America, or anywhere, are part of one and the same nation
• they need to unite to achieve national greatness
  (pan africanism, black nationalism)
• black people should not be ashamed of their skin colour but rather be proud of it, and be proud of the African nation that it marks them out as being part of (black pride)

Question 6

von Herder

Answer 6

• formed part of a romantic reaction against the rational ideas of the enlightenment
• the movement to unite the German people into a single state was influenced by Herder’s work
• he believed the world was naturally divided into nations, defined by its own distinctive culture
• national culture is developed through historical experience and its main characteristic is a common language
• ‘volk’ - expressed this idea, volk have a common experience, and this binds them together
• he was concerned with cultural, rather than biological, differences
• Herder argued that the fixed ideas of liberalism should not be applied to nationalist movements, because every nationals grouping of volk was distinctive and developed its own values

Question 7

Mazzini

Answer 7

• combined philosophy with political/military action
• along with Giuseppe Garibaldi, he became the face of Italian nationalism and did much to create the idea of ‘republicanism’
• he formed ‘young Italy’, a movement dedicated to the overthrow of hereditary monarchies that dominated the fragmented Italian peninsula, and to replacing them with a united Italy under democratic rule
• Mazzini’s form of republicanism - the desire to see a nation united and free from external domination, and popular democracy
• he claimed a nation living under hereditary rule was not a free nation
• nationalism is a collective enterprise, the interests of the nation are above those of the individual

Question 8

romanticism - Mazzini

Answer 8

• Mazzini was described as a ‘romantic nationalist’
• he saw the forces that bind people together as being spiritual in nature
• saw nationalism in terms of both territory and nationalist spirit

Question 9

Rousseau

Answer 9

• philosopher of the Enlightenment period
• his ideas on patriotism and civic pride influenced the creation of the idea of the nation state
• he was concerned with how political communities are created - how people might form themselves into units, which would be capable of self government, and which would be stable and capable of remaining united
• he developed a romantic idea of a nation, a concept to which people could owe an allegiance which would hold them together
• he was concerned with freedom of the individual and the collective freedom of the individual
• nationalism, freedom, and good governance go hand in hand
• ‘the source of all sovereignty is essentially in the nation’

Question 10

Garvey

Answer 10

• believed the African people were one single race who had been scattered by slavery, and divided within Africa itself by colonial rule
• by uniting, the black people would be capable of throwing off colonial rule, and creating a new, free and united Africa
• his doctrine was known as Garveyism
• he asserted that it had been a conscious policy of colonial rulers to divide the African people to be able to dominate them
• Garvey was a pan Africanist
• proposed the unification of the continent
• he founded the universal negro improvement association, an attempt to counteract the lack of education that so many African/African Americans experienced, and which was holding back their progress
• he had a profound influence on future black emancipation movements, notably Malcom X’s nation of islam campaign

Question 11

Maurras

Answer 11

• he described his brand of nationalism as integral nationalism
• Maurras believed that France had lost its greatness as a result of its abandonment of hereditary monarchy, its separation of church and state, and its excessive attachment to democracy
• his proposed remedy was the restoration of French nationalism and a stress on patriotism
• this type of ultra conservative nationalism featured a nostalgic yearning for a bygone age of glory, partly based on mythology, an acute xenophobia, the establishment of a strong authoritarian state, and the restoration of traditional values, including the patriotic attachment to the nation
• his main contribution to nationalist thought was the idea that the interests and consciousness of individuals should be supressed in favour of a collective identity, and the most powerful collective identity was integral nationalism
• integral nationalism accepts no collective identity above the nation and demands the people’s complete obedience to the ideals of the nation