Nationalism Lecture 4: Theories II

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NationalismLecture 4 Theories II

• Prof. Lars-Erik Cederman
• Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)
• Center for Comparative and International Studies
  (CIS) Seilergraben 49, Room G.2
• lcederman_at_ethz.ch
• http//www.icr.ethz.ch/teaching/nationalism
• Assistant Kimberly Sims, CIS, Room E 3,
  k-sims_at_northwestern.edu

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Summary Gellner

• Gellner offers a constructivist critique of
  essentialist theory that
• defines nationalism as principle stipulating
  political and cultural boundaries should coincide
• is based on philosophy of history with
  nationalism as integrated part of modern world
• stresses high culture supported by education
• includes a theory of social conflict

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Theories of nationalismMain Debates
Nationalist primordialism
Anti-nationalist ideology
Constructivism
Essentialism
Gellner
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Critical reactions to Gellner

• Functionalism
• Materialism
• Politics?
• Culture?
• Philosophy of history
• Nations before industrial society?
• Prediction may be possible

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Gellners functionalism

• So the economy needs both the type of central
  culture and the central state the culture needs
  the state and the state probably needs the
  homogenous cultural branding of its flock ... In
  brief, the mutual relationship of a modern
  culture and state is something quite new, and
  springs, inevitably, from the requirements of
  modern society. (Nations and Nationalism, p. 140)

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Functionalist explanation
beneficial effect
?
Nationalism
Industrial Society
?
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Amending Gellners theory
beneficial effect
Pre-modern factors
Nationalism
Modern Society
Causal mechanisms
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Benedict Anderson Imagined Communities
beneficial effect
Vernacula- rization 1. Print-capitalism 2.
Reformation 3. Admin. reforms
Nation-state as imagined community
Nationalism
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Michael Mann Political institutionalism
Religious phase
beneficial effect
Modern, democratic society
Discursive literacy
Nationalism
State policies, democratic movements
Commercial/ statist phase
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Other constructivists

• Eric Hobsbawm Marxist interpretation of
  nationalism as false consciousness and
  invention of ideology
• Nationalism was emancipatory but then derailed
• Nationalism will be surpassed post-nationalism
• Karl Deutsch social communication and
  modernization
• Rogers Brubaker Social closure of citizenship
  and immigration policies

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Essentialist critique

• Materialism culture!
• Historical timing
• nations before nationalism!
• history more deterministic!

Nationalism
Nations
Ethnic communities
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A. D. Smiths critique of Gellner

• Cultural functionalism
• Nations have ancient roots

Ethnic Communities
Nationalism
Nations
Modern Society
need
Ethno- genesis
Nation- formation
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Ethnogenesis (Nation Identity, Ch. 2)

• State-making
• Military mobilization
• Organized religion
• Ethnic evolution
• Religious reform
• Cultural borrowing
• Popular participation
• Myths of ethnic election

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Nation-Formation(National Identity, ch. 3)

• Def. nation
• 1. homeland
• 2. myths
• 3. mass culture
• 4. legal rights
• 5. economy

Lateral ethnie
Vertical ethnie
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Other essentialists

• John Armstrong, Nations Before Nationalism
• Liah Greenfeld, Nationalism Five Roads to
  Modernity
• Walker Connors, Ethno-Nationalism

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Gellners response to his critics

• Functionalism
• Beyond industrialization bureaucratic
  centralization
• Nations have navels