Analysis of Nationalism and Ethnic Politics - Literature review Example

? Nationalism & Ethnic politics Insitution: Introduction Nationalism refers to an aspect of universalism where the people of a particular state are held together and share the same culture. A nation is therefore able to be independent and have an autonomous political community sharing the same historical reality and common destiny. In the early twentieth century the term nationality was often described based on the race or genetics therefore bringing the term nationality on the forefront of world history in terms of influence. Historically, this has changed as the nation-state has become the dominant social figure and this transition has been refered to as nationalism. The point of existence of nationalism is a nation characterized by shared language, culture and values. The academic theory on nationalism shows that national identity is usually contested and may reflected in the differences in class, gender, dialect, region and language. Origin of nationality. The first studies relating to nationalism were mostly historically accounted by the nationalist movements. Towards the end of the 19th century, the followers of Marx and other socialists showed an analysis that was very critical of the movements of the nationalists. This gives rise to the sociological theories of nationalism which date back to the period after the second world war. Some of these theories discuss issues relating to the identity of the people of a particular nation which are of major impact to nationalists (Smith, 2010). Anthony D. Smith, shows the origin of nationalism and creates a synthesis of primordialist and modernist views, which are now commonly referred to as an ethno-symbolist approach. According to Smith, the conditions prior to the formation of a nation include: -A homeland that is fixed(current or historical) -High degree of autonomy -Hostile environments -Memories of battles -Sacred areas and centres -Languages -Special norms and practices -Historical records and way of thought Smith also postulates that the nation came into existence as a result of joining the whole population and not just the elite in the society, the introduction of legal and political institution , ideas from the nationalists, international popularity and the segregation of land by border formation. Research seeks to find out which among the nation or nationalism came first. According to the primordialist theory of nationalism nations are presented to be dating back or at least ethnic groups, as a social reality dating back twenty thousand years as a social reality. However, contrasting this speculation is the modernist theories which to a great extend show that until around 1800, there were no nations. The ideas of a national identity was first introduced by the European states for purposes of modernization and control of the economy and the society.The people behind the modernist theory of nationalism view capitalism and printing press as important factors in nationalism. The Approaches to Nationalism The modernist Approach. The modernist approach borrows from the marxist‘s traditions and as postulated by Smith, as much as nationalism is a modern concept, he insists that nations too have a pre-modern origin. Modernism, largely borrows from Marxist traditions and rejects both the primordialist and perennialist assumptions that nations existed since the beginning of human civilization and instead views nationalism purely as a result of modernization with special attention being made to the role the elites. These elites utilize various means of communication, cultural norms and symbols in manufacturing a national identity that was constructed for the express purpose of benefiting those elites who could not challenge the state on their own. The postmodern school of thought holds that nationalism reached its peak around World War I and the collapse of the Soviet Union will probably be the last one of the nation-state formation for quite some time. Instead, postmodernists would argue, the 21st century witnessed a recession of the authority and dominancy of nationalism in global affairs and its eventual replacement by a new world order of either collapse of the nation-state, globalization and the formation of an abnormal culture. Unlike other paradigms, postmodernism also is the first that looks at the function of feminism in nationalistic movements (Wollman,2003). The Ethno-symbolist Approach This approach defines nation on the basis of ethnicity. The ethnosymbolism approach to nationalism is a synthesis of the modernist and the traditional views of how nations came about. Smith argues that the concept of nationalism is a part of a common identity shared in history. He states that many nationalities are born as a result of flaws in the interpretation of past events and activities. In addition he empasises that the members of a particular state need not be similar, but rather should should have a strong bond of solidarity to thier nation and to the rest of the citizens in that nation. As a result, the previous ties of kin, religion and beliefs are mantained (Wollman,2003).. Ethnic nationalism includes ideas of a culture shared between members of the group and with their ancestors which is commonly and usually a shared language. Membership in the nation is normally inherited from ones parents. The state derives political legitimacy from its status as habitat of the ethnic group and also from its function to protect the national group and facilitate its cultural and social life as a whole. Anthony D. Smith uses the term 'ethnic nationalism' for concepts of nationalism, as opposed to modern western views of a nation defined by its geographical territory. Nationalist activist often view themselves as representatives of a previously existing nation. They have a general view of the nations or the ethnic groups as a social reality dating back twenty thousand years. Nationalism can thus be a cause of division and can lead to differences among various groups of people where theindividuals identify with their own nation. The idea may also be repulsive as it causes social mobility where the elites in a society or the political leaders gain the upper hand and eventually lead to exploitaion of the rich by the poor. In the general, there might be a widespread criticism on the aspect of nationalisn where the main point is that it is a cause of conflict and war between nation-states. Smith terms the nation states as single ethnic and cultural population that inhabits the boundaries of a state, and the boundaries of that state are coextensive with the boundaries of that ethnic and cultural population. A nation on the other hand is termed as a named population sharing a historic territory, common myths and historical memories, culture, a common economy and common legal rights and duties for its members. Ethnic groups as well are referred to as named units of population with common ancestry, myths and historical memories, elements of shared culture, some link with a historic territory and some measure of solidarity, at least among their elites. Although Smith’s rush through opinions on nationalism is welcome and ultimately provides thorough and comprehensive material, sometimes there is an impression that each view is not given the justice that it deserves (Smith,2010). Certain cultural characteristics that can be identified as those defining a nation, as well as how they came to exist in the first place, has inspired debates where the first question is on invention of nations and second relates to whether the nations and nationalism are linked with modernity. The first position with regard to the origins of the common cultural base is that national cultural characteristics exist and are a natural result of humans living in society. This is the position of the perennialists, who argue that nations, whether natural or not, have existed as long as humans have lived in the society. According to this position, the history of nations and nationalism can be found by tracing the evolution of the cultural characteristics that define each nation and their inscription on the human landscape over time. Even where the characteristics are considered to be symbolic or based on myths, they are held to previously exist (Woolman,2003). Nationalism is an aspect that promotes one’s own identity against the ideologies of other people. In this case, the various theories that are used to explain the ideology of national building may not be a perfect fit to explaining the term nationalism.  However, there are other theories that are assumes a materialistic approach in their explanation and can therefore be used to explain nationalism. Such theories are like, Gellner’s model theory, which presents nationalism as emanating from the conflicts amid of social-ethnicity.  Even though the model tries to explain nationalism, it does not wholily embrace the whole idea pertaining to nationalism.  Other theories that perceives nationalism as a product from the western culture, also do no uphold the core thing core mechanism of nationalism (Smith,2010). In comparison, most of the theories that seem convincing endorse the ideology of nationalism in social culture reform.  The angle at which nationalism should be perceived in order to shun away from the dominant forces from the west which holds that nationalism is their product,  is by strongly resisting to adopt it from the western and rather build own nationalistic attitude. This helps in reinstating a country’s national value by integrating culture into impressive features, through inventing a convenient Golden age- a keystone of nationalism. Such an approach would rather widen the gap amid of ethnicity theories which do not conform to the primordialist paradigm and pay close attention on enlarging the boundaries between the groups. According to Smith there is a decisive role of the relationship between nationalism and ethnic politics which is also supported by cultural contents.  The relationship between the nationalism and ethnic politics is mostly propagated by the fact that, there are more affinities between ethnicity and nationalism (Smith,2010). In terms of explanations, for its power in mobilizing the mass public, nationalism and Ethnic politics can be explained using conjunction of two elements; the ethnic nation as an essential political element and the policy of self determination as the basis of political authenticity. The coincidence of the two terms sets ethnic nationalism on blaze. As it has been noted from the earlier discussions, appearance of a sense of nationalism and identification is perceived as associates of varied group starts to develop. Such an association sets the group in a better position in marking the difference between the members from their groups and the outsiders. However, the self- respect of the social group is not able to mobilize political mobilization, if it is not connected to the idea of the self –rule which is personified by contemporary states. Due to the fact that, Christianity and sacral dynastic monarchies have vanished, political power has realized a new source of legitimacy being representative of the people. It is not by any accident that a ‘nation’ has speciously become an alternate for a ‘state’. In veracity, a state does not inevitably correspond with a nation. The points presented by smith on the relationship to the study of nationalism and modern ethnic politics, can not be contributory to the general problems of social anthrolopolgy. The main challenges concerns how to manipulate the relationship amid of anthropological theory, simply known as the native theory and the communal organisation (Smith, 2010). Conclusion The purpose of this paper was to provide a precise statement of an ethno-symbolic approach to the overall study of the nationalism and ethnic politics. The paper has tried to present the theoretical framework of its emergence, its major assumptions and related themes. Moreover, it has presented nationalism analyis and the structure of nations, their persistence and change and the main function of nationalism. At the same time, the paper covers a common statement of the writers own opinion to ethno-symbolism and how it is aplied to cover the central issues in a nation and natinalism. As regards Smith, ethno-symbolism does not at any moment relate to scientific theory but rather it can be perceived as a specific perspective on, and research progrmme for, the study of nations and nationalism. References Smith, A.(2010).Nationalism, Key Concepts, Volume 3 of PKC - Polity Key Concepts series, 2nd Ed. Chiacago: Polity. Wollman, H, Spencer,P.(2003).Nationalism: a critical , Chicago:SAGE Read More