Nationalism: Decline or Revival?

1. Nationalism: Decline or Revival? BA Political Transformations

2. Nation • Comprehensive definition: • a collective proper name • occupation of a historic territory • integrated territorial economy and communications infrastructure • common political myths and memories • mass, public culture

3. Nationalism • A particularist social and political movement for attaining identity, unity and autonomy on behalf of a social group, whose leaders believe it to constitute an actual or potential 'nation.‘ - A universal ideology which posits that: • The world is divided into nations, each with its own particular character • The nation is the proper source of political power • Everyone must belong to/owe primary loyalty to their nation • Every nation must seek full autonomy • World order must be based on free nations

4. Theories of Nationalism • Main schools: primordialist, ethnosymbolist, modernist • State theory based on the perspective of modernist theorists • State 'made use of' patriotic sentiment for the first time (P. Anderson) • State 'invents' nations where they do not exist • State 'creates' a culture and associated sentiment with no real reference to what went before

5. When Did the Ethnic Group Arise? Modernist Perennialist Primordialist Ethnic Groups Origin Modern period (post-1789) In History (after 6000 BC) Pre-History Pre-Modern Social Structure Cosmopolitan Elite strata, localized masses (i.e. no imagined &/or integrated communities of territory and genealogy) Great difference: some vertically-integrated ethnic groups, some more loosely integrated units, some un-integrated, Groups rise and fall Ethnic groups ever-present throughout history, in all times and places Process of Ethnogenesis Invention of the modern state or competing sub-state elites Created by intellectuals (religious or secular-romantic), but informed by traditional culture and mediated by popular sentiment Emerged organically as peoples met through migration and war Major Theorists Ernest Gellner, Benedict Anderson, Eric Hobsbawm, Anthony Giddens Anthony Smith, John Armstrong, Walker Connor, Adrian Hastings Pierre van den Berghe, Joshua Fishman, Stephen Grosby

6. The Rise of Cosmopolitan Anti-Nationalism • Surrealism in modern art supersedes Futurism, 1920s • Most modernist intellectuals move left and the Left become cosmopolitan during inter-war period • Marks the beginning of cosmopolitan anti-nationalism • Two reasons: reflexivity and war

7. Interwar Politics, US • US: intellectuals and religious elite struggles against Anglo-Protestant nationalism • Immigration restriction • Klan • Prohibition

8. Interwar Cosmopolitan Politics, Europe • Growing peace movements advocate European unity in 1910s • French pro-European associations have 100,000s of members in 1920s • Paneuropa formed in Austria, led by Coudenhove-Kalergi, early 1920s. HQ provided by Chancellor Seipel of Austria • Draws on older European Idea • Peace, cosmopolitanism and European Idea linked

9. Interwar Cosmopolitan Politics, Europe • Kalergi has links with French officials like Aristide Briand • French foreign minister and pan-European Briand, mid 1920s • French premier Herriot: 'United States of Europe', 1925 • Pushed initiatives on both world peace (Geneva Protocols) and European federalism • Briand's Memorandum on a United Europe, 1929. Presented to League of Nations and sent to European leaders for discussion

10. Postwar Developments • US: emphasises 'nation of immigrants' idea and statue of liberty. Bar on nonwhite immigrants relaxed • Europe: moves toward European unity spearheaded by Paneuropean groups with pre-war links • Leaders often have background in these organisations (i.e. Spinelli, de Gasperi- EEC commissioner) • EEC forms from 1950s. Idealism of European Commission partly driven by cosmopolitan-pacifist motivations ('avoiding war') • US cosmopolitanism is cultural, that of Europe is political

11. Postwar Internationalism • World Federalists and Ecumenical Protestants in US strongly back UN as they did the League of Nations. Opposed by many at home • New UN human rights legislation. International law begins to come of age

12. Cosmopolitanism as a Successful 20th c. Movement • Many nationalist movements have been successful at taking power. What about cosmopolitan movements? • The idea of a permanent assembly of states and of a European Union were dreams that lay unrealised for centuries, why the change? • The dream of a universal nation in the US remained a fiction for centuries. Why the change in the 20th c.?

13. Main Reasons for Intellectual-Political Success • Intellectual evolution of liberal-cosmopolitan logic during 1900-14 which began to regard nationalism as reactionary • Impact of mass warfare during 1914-45 which accelerated the antinationalist tendency within cosmopolitan thought • Increased societal reflexivity: expanding and intensifying networks of conceptual exchange sharpen contradictions between nationalism and cosmopolitanism

14. Recent Period • Expansion of Higher Education and national electronic media • Peace and prosperity of 1945-73 • Major attitude changes in US among 'baby boom' generation on issues of race, national identity, 1965-73 • Rise of a 'postmaterialist' culturally-liberal cohort of university-educated cosmopolitans that are pro-immigration and pro-Europe • New 'Cosmopolitan Democracy' advocates in IR and Theory: Held, Giddens, Beck, Nussbaum • Beck's 'Cosmopolitan Manifesto', LSE c. 2000 • Francis Fukuyama sees the supersession of the nation

15. The Globalisation Debate • Giddens: 'intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities' • Held: 'extent, intensity, velocity and impact of world-wide interconnectedness' • Neoliberal Globalists: Kenichi Ohmae • 'Third Way' Globalists: David Held, Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck, Daniele Archibugi • Skeptics: Hirst, Thompson, Mann, Smith

16. Major Realms • Material: technological, economic (trade, finance, global economic institutions, Euro/NAFTA institutions, TNCs) • Political: NGOs, international bodies (regional, international), transnational bodies (EU), international civil society • Cultural: scientific, mass/consumer culture, new class/elite culture, ideology, civil society?, international migration, tourism

17. Giddens on Cultural Globalisation • Modernisation and globalisation fundamentally linked • Globalisation alters our sense of what is local or national. Our lifeworld includes global imagery and culture alongside local and national • Our perception of space changes as mediated images from distant events/culture inhabit our daily life • Changes identity - often away from ethnicity and nationhood

18. Skeptics: Michael Mann • 5 networks: local, national, inter-national, transnational, global • Local has diminished, rest have strengthened • national and transnational networks expand in tandem (ie national and international transport/trade in 19th c.) • State already lost power in certain areas in 19th c. - i.e. religion.But gained elsewhere. Always an ebbing and flowing in different realms • Much of what we speak of as globalisation is in fact traditional cross-border transnationalism between developed countries (ie Canada is US' largest trading partner and this has share has risen in past few decades despite talk of Asia-Pacific)

19. Mann… • 80 pc of global production still domestic market-driven • TNCs heavily intertwined with 'home' state and its politics (i.e. Finland- Nokia; Sony-Japan) • Even international finance has many national constraints • Inconceivable that wealthy countries' working class would accept a standard of living similar to Third World proletariat

20. Mann… • State expansion in terms of government spending as % of GDP is a postwar development and continues • State remains strong in US and East Asia, growing in strength elsewhere as nations build and develop welfare states. This deepens national network • EU - important transnationalism here, but limited. EU spends only 1.37% of European GDP prior to expansion. (Also intergovernmentalism, Euro-skepticism, much trade is still between neighbours) • New sub-state nationalisms further nationalist ideal rather than detracting from it

21. Cultural Skeptics • Culture is not identity. (i.e. Pakistani Militant in Chicago Bears t-shirt) • Walker Connor: globalisation of culture can lead to hardening of identity as in nations that lost cultural difference (i.e. Ireland) • Kotkin/Huntington/Eriksen: global communications & internet enables long-distance nationalism and diaspora ties • Smith: improved communication technology enables nationalist message (cassettes and spread of Iranian revolution, radio and Hutu massacre, TV and Serbian nationalism)

22. Smith's skepticism • Global scientific-technical networks have no symbolic depth and do not resonate • Neither scientific modernism nor pastiche of diversity offer what even empires had in the way of symbolism • Older cosmopolitan imperial projects fell apart, but were sustained by symbolic repertoires with historical depth and particularist ethnic origin

23. Conclusion • Why did ethnic groups and nations form and why reproduced? • If the outcome of politics and economics, could well be transcended • If cosmopolitanism or global sensibility takes root, will reduce power of nationalism and ethnicity • Others, especially ethnosymbolists, claim the nation is far more durable