STATES AND NATIONS

Question 1

Four Strands of Nationalism

Answer 1

• Elite-driven Nationalism: Used by elites to gain or maintain control, often associated with forms of oppression or conflict.
• Productivity-driven Nationalism: Seen as necessary for societal productivity, especially linked to processes like industrialization.
• Ethnic-based Nationalism: Connected to ethnic inheritance, where identity is considered innate and forms the basis for the nation.
• Cultural Creation Nationalism: Views nationalism as a new cultural creation, a collective community “imagined” into existence for a specific purpose.

Question 2

Nationalism and Society

Answer 2

• Unified Identity: Provides a unified identity to societies divided on linguistic, cultural, or ethnic lines.
• Political Purpose: Justifies being ruled by one government based on the idea of a shared national identity.
• Maintenance: Achieved through political power, everyday practices like national celebrations, and holidays.
• Territorial Association: Often linked to a territory, uniting people who share a common history, language, and culture.

Question 3

Ethnic vs. Civic Nationalism

Answer 3

• Ethnic Nationalism: Rooted in kinship, language, and race, often associated with competing claims for power and historical violence.
• Civic Nationalism: Rooted purely in political identity, allowing for adaptation of national identity by choice, though often overlapping in reality.

Question 4

Debates on Nationalism

Answer 4

• Basis Debate: Scholars’ conflict on whether nationalism is rooted in long histories and older ethnic structures or a modern creation inventing new forms of identity.
• Calhoun’s Stand: Leans towards viewing nationalism as a modern phenomenon inventing new identities.

Question 5

Mythic Origins and Multiple Stories

Answer 5

• Origins Debate: No consensus on when nationalism began; Calhoun emphasizes viewing it as drawing together various threads of historical change.
• Creation of Identity: Nationalism as a discursive formation, creating new identities with multiple stories, each contributing to an understanding of power in the contemporary world.