Nationalism Lecture 2: Key Concepts Prof. Lars-Erik Cederman Swiss - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Nationalism

Lecture 2: Key Concepts

• Prof. Lars-Erik Cederman

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS) Seilergraben 49, Room G.2 lcederman@ethz.ch http://www.icr.ethz.ch/teaching/nationalism Assistant: Kimberly Sims, CIS, Room E 3, k-sims@northwestern.edu

Why nationalism has been ignored and misunderstood in the West

• Zeitgeist of post-WWII period
• Scientific biases:

– State-Centrism – Behaviorism – Materialism – Individualism – “Presentism”

Basic Concepts

• Essentially contested concepts (W. Gallie):

– No generally accepted use – Scholars and politicians talk past each other

• Key concepts:

1. The State 2. The Nation 3. Nationalism

Also: nation-state, ethnic category etc.

• 1. Defining the state
• Max Weber: A formal organization that

enjoys monopoly on legitimate violence within its territory

• Corollaries:

– Internal sovereignty – External sovereignty – Clear boundary

Max Weber

• 2. Defining the nation
• Some alternative definitions:

– Ernest Renan: “an everyday plebiscite” – Joseph Stalin: “a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture”

Ernest Renan Joseph Stalin

• 2. Defining the nation, cont’d
• Another alternative

definitions:

– A. D. Smith: “a named human population sharing an historical territory, common myths and historical memories, a mass, public culture, a common economy and common legal rights and duties for all members”

Weber’s definition of the nation

• Max Weber: “a community of sentiment

which would adequately manifest itself in a state of its own” and thus “tends to produce a state of its own”

• Note 1: Imagined community, not objective

group

• Note 2: Not any conscious group:

dependence on state

Ethnicity ≠ Nationalism

• An ethnic community (or an ethnie) is

a cultural community based on a common belief in real or putative descent (Max Weber)

• An ethnic category are based on

cultural markers that are imposed by

• utside observers (see Paul Brass)

Conceptual Overview

Habsburg Empire Germany and Italy from early 19th C. Germany and Italy before 19th century colonial peoples before decolonization

Examples:

territorial sovereignty national self- determination tradition —

Normative principle

patriotism & enforcement nationalism categorical mass loyalty solidarity, direct links & categories —

Source of cohesion

• bjective,

territorial self-perceived, categorical self-perceived, categorical

• bjective,

externally imposed

Boundaries

State Nation Ethnic Community Ethnic Category

• 3. Defining Nationalism
• A. D. Smith

1. process of forming and maintaining nations and nation- states 2. national consciousness 3. language and symbolism 4. ideology or cultural doctrine 5. social and political movement

• 4. + 5. = “an ideological movement of attaining and

maintaining autonomy, unity and identity on behalf

• f a population deemed by some of its members to

constitute an actual nation or potential ‘nation’”

What is that ideology about?

• A. D. Smith:
• World divided into nations
• Nation source of all political and social

power

• Freedom requires national identification
• Nations must be free

Defining nationalism continued...

• Ernest Gellner: “nationalism is primarily a

political doctrine, which holds that the political and the national unit should be congruent”

• My modification: “a specific

ideology with European origins stating that each nation should possess its own state or at least some degree of territorial self-determination.”

Ernest Gellner

States and nations

• I. Anarchy
• II. Multinational State
• III. Stateless/Split

Nation

• IV. Nation-State

Common state? Common nation? Absent Present Absent Present

center periphery secession unification

Three types of nationalism

Common nation? Common state? no yes no yes State-framed nationalism Unification nationalism Separatist nationalism