A detailed, in-depth summary of chapter 6 of the book Politics by Andrew Heywood. The summary includes all terms and definitions and is sufficient scope for an exam. This book is often used for first-year political science courses.
CHAPTER 6 – NATIONS AND NATIONALISM
- Nationalism has contributed to the outbreak of wars and revolutions
- Diverse political phenomenon
What is a nation?
- Nation is taken for granted
- Nation is often used interchangeably with terms such as state, country, ethnic group
and race
- Nations – are complex phenomena that are shaped by a collection of factors
o Culturally → a nation is a group of people bound together by a common
language/religion/history and traditions (various level of cultural
heterogeneity)
o Politically → nation is a group of people who regard themselves as a natural
political community
- Nations can only be defined subjectively by their members
- Ethnic group → a group of people who share a common cultural and historical
identity, typically liked to a belief in common descent
- Cultural – cultural community, the importance of ethnic ties and loyalties
- Political – significance of civil bonds and allegiances
- Johann Gottfried Herder
o German poet and philosopher
o The father of cultural nationalism
Nations as cultural communities
- Nation is essentially ethnic or cultural entity
- Can be traced back to late 18th century Germany – Herder and Fichte
- Herder → nations are determined by its natural environment, climate and physical
geography
o Form of culturalism
o Appreciation of national traditions and collective memories
- Volksgeist → Literally, the spirit of the people, the organic identity of a people
reflected in their culture and particularly their language
- Culturalism → the belief that human beings are culturally defined creatures, culture
being the universal basis for personal and social identity
- Gellner – the degree to which nationalism is linked to modernization and
industrialization
- Cultural nationalism – a form of nationalism that places primary emphasis on the
regeneration of the nation as a distinctive civilization rather than as a discrete
political community
- Cultural nationalism often takes a form of national self-affirmation
o Welsh nationalism
o Black nationalism in the US
o West Indies
, - Meinecke → distinguishes between cultural nations and political nations
o Cultural → characterized by a high level of ethnic homogeneity
▪ Greeks, Germans, Russians, English and Irish
▪ Also Kurds, Tamils, Chechens
▪ Organic nations, they see themselves as exclusive groups
Nations as political communities
- Eric Hobsbawm → highlighted the degree to which nations are invented traditions
o Belief in historical continuity and cultural purity was invariably a myth and
myth created by nationalism itself
- Benedict Anderson → portrayed the modern nation as an artefact – imagined
community
o Imagined artifices constructed through education, the mass media and
process of political socialization
- Political nations → UK, USA, France
o UK - 4 cultural nations (English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish)
o USA – land of immigrants
o France – national identity is closely linked to the traditions and principles of
the 1789 French Revolution
- Acceptance of common principles and goals
- Such nations can be described as political in two senses
o 1. They have achieved statehood only after a struggle against colonial rule
▪ Unifying quest for national liberation and freedom
o 2. These nations have often been shaped by territorial boundaries that were
inherited from their former colonial rulers
- Tribalism → group behaviour characterized by insularity and exclusivity, typically
fuelled by hostility towards rival groups
- Racialism, racism
o These terms tend to be used interchangeably
o Racialism refers to any belief or doctrine that draws political or social
conclusions from the idea that humankind is divided into biologically distinct
races
o Racialism is manifest in calls for social segregation
VARIETIES OF NATIONALISM
- Immense controversy surrounds the political character of nationalism
o Progressive and liberating
o Irrational and reactionary creed that allows political leaders to conduct
policies of military expansion and war in the name of nationalism
- But in fact, it has been both
- Xenophobia → a fear or hatred of foreigners, pathological ethnocentrism
- Giuseppe Mazzini
o Italian nationalist and apostle of liberal republicanism
o Helped to liberate Milan
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