1. Nationalism Lecture 3: Theories I Prof. Lars-Erik Cederman Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS) Seilergraben 49, Room G.2 lcederman@ethz.ch http://www.icr.ethz.ch/teaching/nationalism Assistant: Kimberly Sims, CIS, Room E 3, k-sims@northwestern.eduk-sims@northwestern.edu

2. Theories of nationalism: Main Debates Nationalist primordialism Anti-nationalist ideology EssentialismConstructivism PerennialismModernism

3. Essentialism Cultural Raw Material Political Identities 1 : 1 Articulation, Rediscovery Ethnic cores See Cederman, “Nationalism and Bounded Integration”

4. Essentialism Essentialism claims that nations are based on ancient cultural “raw material” and that there is a one-to-one correspondence between ethnic cores and national identities. Variations: –Primordialism holds that the nation is natural –Perennialism contends that the nation is pre-modern –Methodological essentialism reifies the nation for analytical reasons

5. Constructivism Cultural Raw Material Political Identities Selection & Mobilization Ethnic boundaries

6. Constructivism Constructivism argues that national identities are actively invented and modified by nationalist entrepreneurs selecting and mobilizing cultural traits for political purposes. Variations: –Instrumentalism –Bounded-institutionalist theories

7. Bounded Institutionalism Cultural Raw Material Political Identities Institutional “lock-in”

8. Gellner’s constructivism Targets: –Nationalist primordialism: “Sleeping Beauty” –Perennialism: “Dark Gods Theory” –Anti-nationalist ideologies (Marxism & Liberalism): “Wrong-Address Theory” Gellner’s response: –Nations are not natural –Nations are not old –Nationalism is an integrated part of modernity and cannot be wished away Ernest Gellner

9. Gellner’s philosophy of history Pre-Agrarian Society Agrarian Society Industrial Society “Agro-literate” polity with horizontal elite on top and insulated peasant communities at the bottom Vertically integrated large- scale society unified by culture Stateless society

10. The logic of nationalism High culture replaces structure (Thought and Change, 1964) Key to high culture: educational system “Not the guillotine, but the doctorat d’état is the main tool and symbol of state power. The monopoly of legitimate education is more important, more central than the monopoly of legitimate violence.”

11. Gellner’s typology Pre-nationalist situation Classical liberal nationalism Periphery No education Education Center No education Education Ethnic nationalism Diaspora nationalism