National identity Introduction

National identity

Introduction

This book aims to provide a straightforward introduction to the nature, causes and consequences of national identity as a collective phenomenon. With the present resurgence of the tide of nationalism in many parts of the world, notably the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, a synoptic account of the field of national phenomena is timely. As yet, there are only a few general accounts of the field that go beyond historical surveys of nationalism. At the same time the ethnic revival in the West has turned the attention of both the public and the academic community to the issues posed by ethnic nationalism and has led to important debates, intellectual as well as political, in this area. The allied study of ethnicity in North America has also stimulated interest in the problems of polyethnic states around the globe.

The present book is an attempt to provide an historical sociology of national identity and applies the concepts developed in my Ethnic

Origins of Nations (1986) for the mainly pre-modern period to the modern world of nations and nationalism. Its underlying assumption is that we cannot understand nations and nationalism simply as an ideology or form of politics but must treat them as cultural phenomena as well. That is to say, nationalism, the ideology and movement, must be closely related to national identity, a multidimensional concept, and extended to include a specific language, sentiments and symbolism.

While for analytical purposes it is necessary to distinguish the ideological movement of nationalism from the wider phenomenon

of national identity, we cannot begin to understand the power and appeal of nationalism as a political force without grounding our analysis in a wider perspective whose focus is national identity treated as a collective cultural phenomenon.

Such an approach requires in turn an historical sociology of the bases and formation of national identities. This means that we must first grasp the pre-modern antecedents of modern nations and relate.

National identity and nationalism to questions of ethnic identity and community. Having treated some of these issues elsewhere, I have chosen instead to present my own view of the problem of continuity between pre-modern ethnie and modern nations and of the means by which the latter were formed and created. There is an extensive literature on rival approaches to ethnicity, which I have only touched on here (see especially the essays in Taylor and Yapp (1979) and in Stack (1986) as well as McKay (1982) and A. D. Smith (1988a)).

In this book I have focused on four main issues. The first is the characteristics of national as opposed to other kinds of collective

cultural identification. The second is the role of different ethnic bases in the formation of modern nations and the ways in which

they emerged in early modern Europe. The third is the nature of different kinds of nationalist ideology and symbolism and their

impact on the formation of territorial and ethnic political identities. My final concern is the political consequences of different kinds of national identity, their potential for the proliferation of ethnic conflicts and the chances of superseding the identities and ideologies that give rise to such endemic instability. Nationalism provides perhaps the most compelling identity myth

in the modern world, but it comes in various forms. Myths of national identity typically refer to territory or ancestry (or both) as

the basis of political community, and these differences furnish important, if often neglected, sources of instability and conflict in many parts of the world. It is no accident that many of the most bitter and protracted 'inter-national' conflicts derive from compering claims and conceptions of national identity. An understanding of these ideas and claims is vital if we are ever to ameliorate, let alone resolve, some of these conflicts and create a genuine international community (on which see the excellent treatment in Mayall (1990)). These are the concerns that have shaped the argument and plan of

this book. I start with a cursory examination of different kinds of collective cultural identity in order to highlight the special features of national identity. Chapter 2 looks at the ethnic bases of modern nations and identifies their features, dynamics and survival potential.

Chapter 3 traces the two main ways in which nations were formed

INTRODUCTION

and asks why the first modern national states developed in the West. The contrast between the processes of bureaucratic incorporation of lower strata and outlying ethnic groups by strong states formed by aristocratic ethnic communities, and the mobilization of the 'people' by intellectuals and professionals in popular ethnic communities, is one first found in early-modern Europe. However, it appears soon afterwards in other continents, and it forms a constantmot if in the culture and politics of the modern world.