Nationalism
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powerful groups. The Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm (1983), for example, highlighted the extent to which nations are based on ‘invented traditions’. Hobsbawm argued that a belief in historical continuity and cultural purity is invariably a myth, and, what is more, a myth created by nationalism itself. Constructivism suggests that nationalism creates nations, not the other way round. In the case of Marxism, nationalism has been viewed as a device through which the ruling class counters the threat of social revolution by ensuring that national loyalty is stronger than class solidarity, thereby binding the working class to the existing power structure. Self-determination Nationalism as a political ideology only emerged when the idea of national community encountered the doctrine of popular sovereignty . This occurred during the French Revolution and was influenced by the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, sometimes
seen as the ‘father’ of modern nationalism. Although Rousseau did not specifically address the question of the nation, or discuss the phenomenon of nationalism, his stress on popular sovereignty, expressed in the idea of the ‘ general will ’, was the seed from which nationalist doctrines sprang. As a result of the Polish struggle for independence from Russia, he came to believe that this is vested in a culturally unified people. Rousseau argued that government should be based not on the absolute power of a monarch, but on the indivisible collective will of the entire community. During the French Revolution, these beliefs were reflected in the assertion that the French people were ‘citizens’ possessed of inalienable rights and duties, no longer merely ‘subjects’ of the crown. Sovereign power thus resided with the ‘French nation’. The form of nationalism that emerged from the French Revolution was therefore based on the vision of a people or nation governing itself. In other words, the nation is not merely a natural community: it is a natural political community.
Constructivism: The theory that meaning is imposed on the external world by the beliefs and assumptions we hold; reality is a social construct. Sovereignty: The principle of absolute or unrestricted power expressed either as unchallengeable legal authority or unquestionable political power. General will: The genuine interests of a collective body, equivalent to the common good; the will of all, provided each person acts selflessly.
KEY FIGURE
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU (1712–78) A Geneva-born French moral and political philosopher, Rousseau is commonly viewed as the architect of political nationalism, but also influenced liberal, socialist, anarchist and, some claim, fascist thought. In The Social Contract (1762), Rousseau argued that ‘natural man’ could only throw off the corruption, exploitation and domination imposed by society and regain the capacity for moral choice through a radical form of democracy, based on the ‘general will’. This subordinates the individual to the collective and promises political liberty and equality for all.
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In this tradition of nationalism, nationhood and statehood are intrinsically linked. The litmus test of national identity is the desire to attain or maintain political independence, usually expressed in the principle of national self-determination. The goal of nationalism is therefore the founding of a ‘nation-state’. To date, this has been achieved in one of two ways. First, it may involve a process of unification. German history, for instance, has
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