1. Nationalism Lecture 2: Key Concepts
Prof. Lars-Erik Cederman
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)
Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS) Seilergraben 49, Room G.2
Assistant: Kimberly Sims, CIS, Room E 3,

2. Why nationalism has been ignored and misunderstood in the West
Zeitgeist of post-WWII period
Scientific biases:
State-Centrism
Behaviorism
Materialism
Individualism
“Presentism”

3. Basic Concepts Essentially contested concepts (W. Gallie):
No generally accepted use
Scholars and politicians talk past each other
Key concepts:
The State
The Nation
Nationalism
Also: nation-state, ethnic category etc.

4. 1. Defining the state
Max Weber: A formal organization that enjoys monopoly on legitimate violence within its territory
Corollaries:
Internal sovereignty
External sovereignty
Clear boundary
Max Weber

5. 2. Defining the nation Some alternative definitions:
Ernest Renan: “an everyday plebiscite”
Joseph Stalin: “a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture”
Ernest Renan
Joseph Stalin

6. 2. Defining the nation, cont’d
Another alternative definitions:
A. D. Smith: “a named human population sharing an historical territory, common myths and historical memories, a mass, public culture, a common economy and common legal rights and duties for all members”

7. Weber’s definition of the nation
Max Weber: “a community of sentiment which would adequately manifest itself in a state of its own” and thus “tends to produce a state of its own”
Note 1: Imagined community, not objective group
Note 2: Not any conscious group: dependence on state

8. Ethnicity ≠ Nationalism
An ethnic community (or an ethnie) is a cultural community based on a common belief in real or putative descent (Max Weber)
An ethnic category are based on cultural markers that are imposed by outside observers (see Paul Brass)

9. Conceptual Overview Ethnic Category Community Nation State Boundaries
objective, externally imposed
self-perceived,
categorical
self-perceived, categorical
objective,
territorial
Source of
cohesion —
solidarity, direct links & categories
nationalism
categorical mass loyalty
patriotism & enforcement
Normative principle
tradition
national self-determination
territorial sovereignty
Examples:
colonial peoples before decolonization
Germany and Italy before 19th century
Germany and Italy from early 19th C.
Habsburg Empire

10. 3. Defining Nationalism A. D. Smith
process of forming and maintaining nations and nation-states
national consciousness
language and symbolism
ideology or cultural doctrine
social and political movement
= “an ideological movement of attaining and maintaining autonomy, unity and identity on behalf of a population deemed by some of its members to constitute an actual nation or potential ‘nation’”

11. What is that ideology about?
A. D. Smith:
World divided into nations
Nation source of all political and social power
Freedom requires national identification
Nations must be free

12. Defining nationalism continued...
Ernest Gellner: “nationalism is primarily a political doctrine, which holds that the political and the national unit should be congruent”
My modification: “a specific ideology with European origins stating that each nation should possess its own state or at least some degree of territorial self-determination.”
Ernest Gellner

13. States and nations

14. Three types of nationalism