WEEK 10 POLSOC (Nationalism)

What is nationalism?

Nationalism is a political movement seeking to make national boundaries align with the boundaries of political governance, increasing national self-rule.

What are Hechter’s four types of nationalism?

• State-building: Creating a unified nation within an existing state (France).

• Unification: Bringing separate territories together into one nation-state (Germany).

• Peripheral: Seeking autonomy or independence for a distinct region (Quebec).

• Irredentist: Seeking to incorporate territory inhabited by members of the same nation (Northern Ireland's IRA).

Why are nationalist movements often violent?

States fear losing territory, power, and resources. They may use extreme violence to suppress nationalist movements, encouraging nationalist groups to fight back and potentially triggering civil wars.

What is a nationalist civil war?

A conflict in which anti-state forces fight to increase their community's political autonomy.

What is the difference between material and ideal definitions of a nation?

• Material: A concrete political community defined by characteristics such as language, religion, or culture.

• Ideal: An imagined political community whose members share a collective identity.

What does Benedict Anderson mean by "Imagined Communities"?

Nations are imagined communities because people feel connected to others they will never meet or communicate with, yet believe they belong to the same national group.

How did print capitalism contribute to the creation of nations according to Anderson?

Printing, mass education, newspapers, and novels spread common national identities and histories, helping people imagine themselves as part of one community.

How does Ernest Gellner explain the rise of nationalism?

Capitalism created a need for a linguistically homogeneous population. States therefore promoted common languages through assimilation and nation-building.

How did Eugen Weber explain the creation of the French nation?

In Peasants into Frenchmen (1976), Weber argued that the French state transformed locally identified populations into a unified French nation through education, infrastructure, conscription, and government expansion.

How did education contribute to French nation-building?

• Language: Promoted French over regional languages.

• Literacy: Allowed access to national newspapers and literature.

• Socialization: Taught students patriotism and national identity through lessons, essays, and maps.

What are the two main critiques of Eugen Weber's argument?

1. He overemphasizes the French state's role and overlooks other historical and cultural factors.

2. He presents nation-building as relatively peaceful, overlooking the violence involved.

What are three forms of violence involved in nation-building?

• Conquest and assimilation: Forcibly integrating regions and imposing a common language.

• Symbolic exclusion: Defining outsiders as dangerous or not belonging (e.g. the Dreyfus Affair).

• National cleansing: Eliminating groups considered undesirable to create a homogeneous nation.

How did nation-building in Canada differ from France?

Canada's linguistic, racial, religious, Indigenous, and immigrant diversity made cultural homogenization difficult. Instead, it promoted multiculturalism to accommodate different communities.

What are the different perspectives on Canadian multiculturalism?

• Positive: Promotes inclusion and respect for cultural differences.

• Critical: Maintains white Anglophone dominance while only symbolically recognizing diversity.

• Indigenous: Can legitimize settler dominance.

• Quebec: Can overlook French Canada's status as a founding community.

• White nationalists: See it as privileging minorities over whites.

What is a state according to Eugen Weber, and what are its six components according to Ralph Miliband?

Weber defines the state as a political organization holding a monopoly on the legitimate use of force within a territory.

Miliband identifies six components:

1. Administration: Runs the state's bureaucracy.

2. Government: Leads the state.

3. Military and police: Maintain order and fight wars.

4. Judiciary: Interprets and enforces laws.

5. Subcentral government: Connects central government to local areas.

6. Legislature: Makes decisions and laws in democracies