Nationality Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Nationality is the object of identification emanating from the growing salience of nationalist sentiments. It may be, but is not necessarily, expressed through citizenship or emotional attachment to a state, or it may be expressed in cultural terms. A nation, in this perspective, refers to people united by a sense of common identification, sometimes a sense of a shared heritage, and some shared values. In other words, a nationality is a state of mind or a psychological fact. Nation is therefore a social and cultural concept, as opposed to state, a political concept referring to the constitutionally designated structures setting the rules for choosing decision makers and making policy decisions.

Nationality Versus Citizenship

The geographic boundaries surrounding the people composing a nation in this sense may or may not be congruent with the boundaries of a state. Thus, one’s citizenship may or may not coincide with one’s nationality. For example, French speaking residents of Quebec identify themselves as citizens of the Canadian federation, but their nationality is Québécois. The former Yugoslavia was a state that was made up of several distinct nationalities: Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian— nationalities so distinct that Serbia attempted to wipe out the Bosnian nation. Similarly, Belgium is a state that has virtually evolved into a loose confederation of the distinct nationalities of Flanders and Wallonia. The record of such multinationality states with respect to regime stability and effectiveness is not encouraging, especially when the nationality differences are buttressed by the lack of a common language.

The question of whether one’s sense of nationality coincides with one’s political citizenship is an important one that affects the stability of effectiveness of the political system in question. Where they do not coincide, segments of the population of a state defined by their nationality may feel isolated and alienated from their fellow citizens of that state.

Growing Saliency Of Nationalism

The salience of the concept of nationality has sharply increased in the post–World War II (1939–1945) era, driven by the growing salience of nationalism, one of the strongest ideological forces in that postwar world. Therefore, one cannot understand the importance of the concept of nationality without understanding the importance of the concept of nationalism.

An understanding of nationalism begins with its definition. Perhaps the classic definition was that of Hans Kohn over five decades ago. Kohn declared that “nationalism is a state of mind in which the supreme loyalty of the individual is felt to be due the nation state” (1955, 9). As a state of mind, one’s nationality is a cultural or psychological concept distinct from one’s political citizenship. Nationality thus constitutes the way individuals define themselves.

Also five decades ago, eminent scholars were pronouncing “the end of ideology.” The obvious weakening of they ideological forces and principles that dominated political conflict in the Western world in the second half of the twentieth century was perhaps indicated by the declining vote share of the major political parties that had evolved to represent these principles. This weakening of the traditional ideological forces in the West accompanied the amelioration of the grievances these principles represented. Francis Fukuyama pronounced that the world was arriving at a consensus that our current form of liberal democracy constitutes the best form of government; hence, with the apparent triumph of the West, political evolution and even fundamental conflict would be a thing of the past. The unstated question raised by these end-of ideology or end-of-history theories is whether the declining salience of the older classic ideologies will be accompanied by the emergence of new sets of principles.

Postmaterialism And The Politics Of Identity

This question was addressed by one of the most important and frequently cited bodies of research in recent decades, Ronald Ingle hart’s theory of the cultural transformation of Western countries from an orientation toward issues and conflict based upon class and materialist concerns to what he calls “postmaterialism.” While Ingle hart has not rigorously delineated the content of post materialist politics, lifestyle issues, such as tolerance of the counterculture that emerged in the United States in the 1960s, would seem to dominate the post materialist arena.

One of the most prominent issues of the postmaterialist world is identity. This could be expressed as identification with a sovereign nation-state or with a smaller subculture or nationality that seeks either autonomy or even secession from the larger nation-state. Therefore, parties that bitterly oppose one another within a given state might each be recognized as embodying a “politics of identity” focused on defending the interests and values of their particular nationality rather than on the state as a whole. The conflict between the populist Canadian Reform Party of the 1990s and the French Canadian Bloc Québécois epitomized this politics of identity, expressed in the conflict between distinct identities within a given state. Less-developed countries frequently contain several tribal nationalities. Nigeria, for example, contains over 300 distinct tribal identities speaking mutually unintelligible languages. Kohn and John Kautsky each stress the importance of a common language in building a shared sense of nationality.

The elites who lead these distinct nationalities within a state have a distinct interest in resisting their assimilation into a broader nationality or the nationality of the rest of the country. Thus, the leaders of the Scottish nationality have an interest in promoting Scotland’s distinctiveness and autonomy from Great Britain and the government at Westminster. The growing pressure for devolution of power from Westminster to Scotland may threaten the coherence of Britain as a sovereign state. Although Great Britain and Northern Ireland may constitute a single sovereign state, England, Scotland, and Wales remain distinct nations.

Conclusion

Skeptics regarding the prospects of creating the political integration of Europe argue that the European Union constitutes an example of the failed attempt to create a European state without the pr ior development of a European nationality. The applicability of the United States as a model for Europe is limited by the fact that the residents of the thirteen colonies to a large extent shared a sense of a common nationality buttressed by a common language.

Thus, the growing salience of the new politics of identity in the face of the decline of classic bases of identity such as class and religion will continue to give prominence to the concept of nationality as a base of political conflict for the postmaterialist world.

Bibliography:

Arwine, Alan, and Lawrence Mayer. “The Changing Bases of Political Conflict in Western Europe:The Cases Of Belgium and Austria.” Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict 14, no. 3 (July 2008): 428–452.
Bell, Daniel. The End of Ideology. New York: The Free Press, 1962.
Fukuyama, Francis. “The End of History.” The National Interest 16 (Summer 1989): 3–18.
Inglehart, Ronald. The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles Among Western Publics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977.
Kohn, Hans. The Idea of Nationalism. New York: Collier Books, 1942.
Nationalism: Its Meaning and History. New York: Van Nostrand, 1955.
Kautsky, John. The Political Consequences of Modernization. New York: Wiley, 1972.
Lipset, Seymour. “The End of Ideology.” Postscript to Political Man. New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1977.

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