Polnat02(2)

POLITICS OF NATIONALISM2. TERMINOLOGY

POLITICS OF NATIONALISM

2. MATTERS OF TERMINOLOGY


GENERAL APPROACH

THIS TOPIC (TODAY, NEXT WEEK):Look at issue of terminology,

and define a set of terms:•State•Nation• (ethnic group, race, minority)•Nationalism


STATE

Definition (Weber, Economy and society, 1968 ed., p. 54):

A compulsory political organisation with continuous operations will be called a “state” insofar as its administrative staff successfully upholds the claim to the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force in the maintenance of its order.


STATE

Expansion of definition (Weber, p. 56):”The primary formal characteristics of the modern state are as follows:It possesses an administrative and legal order subject to change by legislation, to which the organised activities of the administrative staff … are oriented.This system of order claims binding authority, not only over the members of the state, the citizens, most of whom have obtained membership by birth, but also … over all action taking place in the area of its jurisdiction.


STATE

Expansion of definition (continued):It is thus a compulsory organisation with a territorial basis.Furthermore, the use of force is regarded as legitimate only so far as it is either permitted by the state or prescribed by it. ...The claim of the modern state to monopolise the use of force is as essential to it as its character of compulsory jurisdiction and of continuous operation.”


STATEIMPLICATIONS OF DEFINITION:

The state: is a territorial organisation (i.e. with

physical boundaries) has compulsory membership (i.e. all within

its boundaries are members) has a continuous administrative structure possesses a monopoly of the legitimate use

of physical force in the maintenance of order


NATION

Some definitions may be considered …Jenks, 1919, p. 5:Nations. These societies are distinguished from mere communities by the fact that they claim exclusive control over a clearly defined area, or territory, and owe allegiance to a common government, which concerns itself with the general, as contrasted with specific or particular, interests of their members


NATION

Alternatively … Friedrich 1966: 27-32 (many similar):nation: any cohesive group possessing “independence” within the confines of the international order as provided by the United Nations, which provides a constituency for a government effectively ruling such a group and receiving from that group the acclamation which legitimizes the government as part of the world order.


NATION

Or alternatively …Mill:A portion of mankind may be said to constitute a nationality, if they are united among themselves by common sympathies, which do not exist between them and others—which make them cooperate with each other more willingly than with other people, desire to be under the same government, and desire that it should be government by themselves or a portion of themselves, exclusively


NATION

Or alternatively …Renan 1896: 80 :A nation is a living soul, a spiritual principle. Two things, which are in truth but one, constitute this soul, this spiritual principle. One is the past, the other is the present. One is the possession of a rich heritage of memories; the other is the actual consent, the desire to live together, the will to preserve worthily the undivided inheritance which has been handed down


NATIONOr alternatively … Barker 1927 :A nation is a body of men inhabiting a definite territory, who normally are drawn from different races, but possess a common stock of thoughts and feelings acquired and transmitted during the course of a common history; who on the whole and in the main, though more in the past than in the present, include in that stock a common religious belief; who generally and as a rule use a common language as a vehicle for their thoughts and feelings; and who, besides common thoughts and feelings, also cherish a common will, and accordingly form, or tend to form, a separate state for the expression of that will.


NATION

Some shorter definitions … Connor, 2003:nation: a group of people sharing a myth of common ancestry; it is the largest grouping that can be mobilized by appeals to common blood Bolaffi et al, 2003:The term “nation” is usually taken to mean a group of people united by culture, language, traditions and common interest


NATION

And the most politically important definition…Stalin 1913:A nation is an historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life and psychological makeup manifested in a common culture


NATION

IMPLICATIONS OF STALIN DEFINITION:

1. historically constituted, stable community of people

2. common, shared language 3. common territory 4. common economic life 5. common psychological makeup manifested in

a common culture


ETHNIC GROUP

Sample definition Morris 1968: 167 :An ethnic group is a distinct category of the population in a larger society whose culture is usually different from its own. The members of such a group are, or feel themselves, or are thought to be, bound together by common ties of race or nationality or culture

so the majority group is not an ethnic group?


RACE

Sample definition Banton, 1994 :Race: a group or category of persons connected by common origin

Objective rather than subjective?


MINORITY

Sample definition Rose, 1968: 365:Contemporary sociologists generally define a minority as a group of people differentiated from others in the same society by race, nationality, religion or language—who both think of themselves as a differentiated group and are thought of by the others as a differentiated group with negative connotations

May be a majority? May not be privileged?


THE DILEMMA

Terminological ambiguity: Rustow 1968: 7 :In prevailing usage in English and other languages, a “nation” is either synonymous with a state and its inhabitants or else it denotes a human group bound together by common solidarity—a group whose members place loyalty to the group as a whole over any conflicting loyalties(see also Connor, “A nation is a nation, is a state, is an ethnic group…”)


A SOLUTION?

Alternative approach to definition: Instead of adopting a lexical approach (how do scholars use these words?)…

… use a prescriptive approach (how do we intend do use these words here?)


POSSIBLE DEFINITIONS

term used conventionally

general concept (1)

term used here

state

nation

nation-state

compulsory territorial

association successfully

claiming monopoly of legitimate use of

force in maintaining order

state



term used conventionally

general concept (2)

term used here

nationnationality

peopleethnic group

body of people sharing a culture and collectively

disposed towards self-government

nation

ethnic group



Proposed definitions:A state is a self-governing territorial entity with a central decision-making agency which possesses a monopoly of the legitimate use of force in ensuring compliance with its decisions on the part of all within its bordersA racial group is a large collectivity whose members share certain physiological characteristics which they and others see as defining a social boundary between members and non-members of the group



Proposed definitions:An ethnic group is a large collectivity whose members are held together by certain cultural characteristics—including sense of sharing a common past—which they and others see as defining a social boundary between members and non-members of the group A nation is an ethnic group whose members are mobilised in pursuit of political self-determination for the group



Proposed definition of nationalism:

Nationalism is (a) a form of political mobilisation that is directed at rectifying a perceived absence of fit between the boundaries of the nation and the boundaries of the state; or(b) the ideology that justifies this.


TYPES OF NATIONALISM

NEED TO DISTINGUISH:• Nation formation

– Promoted by state elites– Promoted by counter-elites

• State formation– Process of integration– Process of separation


THE END …

Next: language and nationalism

Polnat02(2)

News & Politics

modern state

state definition weber

issue of terminology

state nation ethnic

politics of nationalism2

use of force

compulsory organisation

common government