Nationalism and Fascism

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts related to nationalism and fascism, as discussed in the lecture.

State

• centralised institutions facilitating power over a defined territory

• Smith, 1991

Nation-State

• The convergence of nation and state, typically existing within territorial boundaries, though some nations seek more autonomy within or beyond existing states.

• Smith, 1991

Nation-state

• sovereign state in which citizens are united by factors which define a nation e.g. language, culture, or ethnicity.

• Smith, 1991

Defining nation

• many more nations than states e.g. Tibetans

• many nations aspire to statehood, but will not attain it

• many states encompass more than one nation e.g. UK

• Gellner, 2006

Defining nationalism

• ideology that draws together social and political - feelings of solidarity and togetherness

• many wars driven by nationalism + role in anti-colonialist struggles

• roots in 17th and 18th century - unleashed 19th and 20th century

• history linked to territory and, sovereignty, citizenship, gender, race

• Gellner, 2006

Civic Nationalism

• Allegiance to a state, emphasizing citizenship and shared values.

• Gellner, 2006

Ethnic Nationalism

• Nationalism rooted in a shared heritage, birth place, or ethnicity.

• Gellner, 2006

Primordialism

• The belief that nationhood is an inherent, timeless quality, often with pre-modern or even biological roots.

• linked to blood, soil, race, language

• rejected by scholars

• most radical forms of nationalism are primordial e.g. Putin argues Ukraine not a real nation

• Gellner, 2006

Modernism (Nationalism) Perspectives

• The theory that nationalism arose with the emergence of modernity, facilitated by new modes of production, education, and communication technologies.

• nothing coherent about nations

• oposite to primordialists

• Agrarian societies - localised - make it difficult to be coherent

• Gellner, 2006

Other nationalist modernist perspectives

• rise of printing press and educational institutions crucial for rise of nationalism

• fostered sense of national identity

• nation is imagined because some people will not know they are part of one / meet others in the same nation

• Anderson, 1991

Theoising natioanalism sumamry

Classical perspectives of nationalism (nations pre-given) —> modernist perspective = nation and nationalism as social constructs

Banal Nationalism - everyday nationalism

• The subtle, everyday ways in which national identity is reproduced, often unnoticed.

• focus too often on violent nationalism

• reproduced asa scale of the body + through auto mobility

• Billig, 1995

Criticisms of banal nationalism

• tendency to treat nation  as a given both in everyday life and social theory 

• Billig does not acknowledge the complexity of audience 

• fails to address the place of a nation in a globalising world

• Skey, 2009

Billie response to Skey

• perhaps oversimplifies banal nationalism

• Billig believes national identity is banal for everyone who lives in Britain 

• Billig does not hold the view of a homogenous audience that Skey gives to him

• but sticking to the argument that people have defined nationalism too narrowly  

• Billig, 2009

Affective Nationalism

• The felt, experienced dimensions of nationalism, emphasizing emotional and atmospheric elements.

• this becomes hard to critique

• some emotions disappear - loss of agency

• e.g. Olympics 2012

• monuments can carry nationalist feelings e.g. Statue of Liberty

• Closs-Stephens, 2016

Alternative nationalism : anticolonial struggles

• decolonisation as nation-building or world making

• no just colonial states that embrace nationalism

• Getachew, 2019

Fascism

• A political ideology characterized by ultra-nationalism, a strong centralized state, militarism, and often a cult of personality around a single leader.

• originated in Italy

• unites far right ideology and movements

• not much today

• fascists see global elite as the problem

• Griffin, 2018

Ultra-Nationalism

• An extreme form of nationalism often associated with fascism, emphasizing national superiority and sometimes justifying violence.

• Griffin, 2018

Fascism and aesthetics

• early 20th century fascist regimes had their own aesthetic - architecture, art, fashion

• create a new emotions - positive and negative

• Griffin, 2018

Tensions in fascism

• modernist or reactionary ?

• accepted tech development but rejected enlightenment

• class has a role here - keep class society or disrupt it ?

• Griffin, 2018

Fascism - intellectual roots

• seen to have emerged after WW1

• there were older intellectual roots

• struggle between Aryans and Jews

• Smith, 1986

Case study : fascism in the USA

• abolition of slavery

• 1925 - 35k members of the KKK marched Washington

• European fascist movements has US business support

• Christianity large influence on American far right

• there is emergence

Fascism in power 1919-45

• fed off political instability and economic crisis

• Italy - regional

• German fascism - copy

• fascism failed in Britain

• Griffin, 2018

Neo-fascism

• new/ old political parties emerge e.g. British national party

• these parties did not claim to be fascist = remained on the fringes of the political spectrum

• intellectual movements such as Eurasianism gave fascism justification

• Ingram, 2001

Neo-fascism case study

• new political groups with fascist roots emerging

• e.g. CasaPound in Italy

• draw upon housing issue, want to control migration, value of motherhood

• current Italian party in power has fascist roots

• Cammelli, 2018

Fascism and ultra-nationalism since 2000

• steady rise over last 2 decades

• fuelled by 9/11 + war on terror, global financial crisis in 2008 and refugee crisis in 2015

• far right back in mainstream

• parties call themselves patriots, nationalists

• far right as heterogenous

• Stanley, 2018

Populism

• A political approach that seeks to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.

• seeing a new era of populism - Muller, 2017

• Swyngedou, 2010

Populism case study

• failed in Sri Lanka - left populism after British left

• Islamophobic violence in Sri Lanka dominates political discussion 

• conditions favourable for right wing and xenophobic forces

• Marxism failed in Sri Lanka - could not as a political ideological movement ground itself in Sinhala Buddhist socio-cultural terrain 

• goonewardena, 2020

Populism and egalitarianism

• populism - left forms that seek to reclaim egalitarian political space

• places where everyone participates

• swyngedouw, 2011

Case study : the alt right

• heterogeneous force emerged in the mid 2010s

• White identity politics

• not a fully formed ideology

• role of the internet

• old right - not traditional movement

• Mudde, 2019

Eurasianism

• A geopolitical ideology that prioritizes land power over sea power, often associated with inward-looking, conservative perspectives.

• Russian ideological movement

• Laurelle, 2012

Case study : identitarianism

• Generation identity is pan European - anit-refugee, anti-immigrant etc

• roots in the new right

• metapolitics - seek to shift parameters of the political debate through interventions

• Laurelle, 2012

fossil fascism

• right wing politicians - climate change denialists - want to protect way of life

• extraction and burning of fossil fuels happens along racial lines

• need change = sabotage infrastructure

• Maim et al., 2021

climate channel and populism

• Environmental politics - populist manouveres

• climate change seen as collective issue - but managed through technocratic means - depoliticise the issue

• Swyngedouw, 2010