What İs Nation And Nationalism

Nation and Nationalism
-Terminological debates
-How nationalism shaped modern states
-Conclusion

Terminological debates
1:National interest?

Nations and states seem identical but they are not.
The most important characteristic of a nation should be its
-physical
-spiritual or social characteristics

-old or new
-imagined or real
-separate from state or not, and so forth.
-Nation and
-Nationalism=impossibly fuzzy

As political ideologies, Nationalism have been characterized as
-democratic or authoritarian
-imperial or anti-imperial
-forward looking or backward looking
-state-led or state seeking

There are at least four main reasons why the concept seems to be so resistant to definition:
1.Conflation of the terms ‘state’ and ‘nation’
As a legal entity, a state refers to internationally recognized political institution comprised of population, a territory and a government capable of entering into relations with other states.
A nation can be defined as a named human community connected to a homeland, and having common myths and a shared history, a distinct public culture, and common laws and customs for all members.
1.Conflation of the terms ‘state’ and ‘nation’

Similarities: -human groups (populations x communities)
-geography (territory x homeland)
-set of binding institutions (forging memory x institutions which facilitate formal government)
2.Nationalism is a mass phenomenon but its formal expression defined by elites. Vernacular understanding of what it means to belong to a national identity draw upon a range of cultural ideas and practices.

‘’Official ideologies of states and movements are not   guides to what it is in the minds of even the most loyal    citizens or supporters.‘’           
                        Eric Hobsbawm

3.Nationalist ideology seeks to be simultaneously exceptionalist and universalist
State-seeking national movement seek recognition by the international community.

‘The right for peoples to freely determine their political  status and freely pursue their economic, social and     cultural development.‘’     

(International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Art.1.1)

1. Subjective or imagined qualities of ties are important
   These ties are part of their physical, psychological, sociological or political experience in everyday life.

‘’Men don’t allow themselves to be killed for their interests; they allow themselves to be killed for their passions’’

2:How nationalism shaped modern states and international society
-The Ancient Greeks referred deep relationship between people and place
Patras Patriotism

-Romans used natio to describe peoples who inhabited the outer provinces of the empire

To manage relations with frontier peoples
        A set of principles jus gentium (law of nations)

    Regulated the rules of peace and war and negotiated 

territorial boundaries
-Relationship between nationalism and modernity

-Primordialist – deep effective ties through symbols and traditions
-Perennialist – deep ethno symbolic character of national identity and its different characteristics in the modern context
-Modernist – functional component of modernization

American and French revolutions
‘Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.’

(Declaration of Independence, United of America, 1776)
‘People are the only legitimate foundation for sovereign statehood’

        The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen 
    Nationalism and Language x  Religion

-Nationalism emerged as a result of the link between print technology and the emergence of a modern consumer class, print capitalism.

-National languages are also essential for the creation and functioning of public institutions

Agencies of change:     -Transport infrastructure
            -Military
            -Schools
            -Church

‘Whose region, his religion’ in 16th century
‘Whose region, his nation’ in 19th century

Wilson’s 14 points and League of Nations
-Politically demarcated territory
-Peoples racially, linguistically and culturally homogenous

UN, self determination
-Decolonization and emancipation
-Independence and ethno nationalist struggles

3:Conclusion
-Nations are the dominant means of defining political culture in modern states and international society.

-Nationalism has endured as the most distinctive means of organizing human communities

-Sub-national tribal and ethnic loyalties have challenged national authority

-Globalization is having impact on national and ethnic identity

• ‘’Peoples have a right to freely determine their political status’’ This principle has been important in shaping and defining international society