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This article examines the relationship between nation-building and social policy in post-independence sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It argues that post-independence nationalist leaders used health, housing, and education programmes to foster a sense of national unity that would transcend the existing ethnic divisions created by the arbitrary drawing of state boundaries during colonization. Yet, in SSA, the neo-liberal turn of the 1980s favoured the decline of state-level integration and solidarity, which helped trigger territorial mobilization and fragmentation. As a consequence, the politics of welfare retrenchment in SSA does more than simply reduce benefits and increase inequalities; it also potentially weakens national unity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classical approaches to nationalism and ethnicity have traditionally understood ethnic groups as ethno-nationalist groups that were irrevocably predisposed to constitute political entities in order to preserve and promote their assumed unique socio-historical and cultural markers. However, we argue that the Basque case illustrates much the opposite. Basque ethnic identity was not only utilized by the Basque nationalist movement, but it helped to form diverse processes of national identifications such as the Spanish, French, or Venezuelan for that matter throughout the nineteenth century. In this sense, the debate on Basque ethnicity is not a marginal issue in the re-elaboration of Spanishness and identity politics on both sides of the Atlantic but a central and main one in the Spanish and Latin American national and state-building discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that racist belief systems are global although they are neither uniform nor universal. It suggests that racist belief systems share a common language based on science, that they have a common political tension derived from an egalitarian philosophy and that they can also diverge considerably according to local cognitive traditions and political agendas. The article contends that an interactive approach alone can take into account how racist belief systems were negotiated, appropriated and transformed within historically specific contexts, and it provides a number of detailed discussions of cases ranging from Rwanda to China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explored feelings of European identity and attitudes towards Europe manifested in two groups within the British population: the indigenous white British population (N = 58) and the South-Asian ethnic minority (N = 44). A social survey approach was used with scales to evaluate British, European and ethnic identities and also attitudes towards Europe. Perceived compatibility of identities was also assessed using a visual representation of identities task. Previous research findings were confirmed with the indigenous white British respondents, who displayed a strong sense of national identity negatively correlated with European identity. In contrast, the South Asian respondents displayed positive feelings of identification on all three levels, and a British identity that correlated positively with European identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All state leaders engage in symbolic nation-building in order to foster a sense of national unity among all segments of the country's population. In new states, however, the flag, anthem, and other emblems are often contested by various ethnic and political groups. Instead of unifying the nation they divide it. There are, however, no inherent qualities in state symbols that prevent them from being accepted, and likewise, no particular design will in and of itself guarantee their success. The divisiveness vs. unifying potential of new state symbols is first and foremost a function of whom they are being associated with and how they are being exploited politically. The good news for nation-builders is that the time factor is on their side. This claim is substantiated through an analysis of conflicts over national symbols in one new state (Bosnia), one newly reconfigured state (Russia) and one established nation-state (Norway). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the effect of multi-ethnic empires on the formulation of identity, examining particularly identities developed before the modern period. Imperial state structures and legitimation influenced the understanding of ethnic identities; the resulting definitions and expectations often outlived the empire. Modern European nationalism developed from the group feeling and ideologies of medieval and early modern Europe, influenced by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In western and central Asia largescale secular identities also existed in the pre-modern period within several great empires: the Islamic caliphate, the Mongol Empire, and the Russian Empire. In these states, the connections made between various markers of identity — language, origin, and territory — were unlike those in Europe, and the expectations connected with separate identity were also different. Despite the spread of European nationalism and the creation of modern nation-states throughout these regions, earlier systems of identity have survived and influenced the form of modern national sentiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1845 and 1930 the relatively small minority groups in Norway – the Samis and Kvens – were counted in Norwegian censuses on the basis of 'objective' criteria settled by the State's Central Bureau of Statistics. The censuses data supplied a foundation for the repressive policy towards minorities. But in identifying alien nationalities within the Norwegian borders, the census classifications also contributed in shaping the boundaries between the Norwegians and 'the others'. Especially the construction of mixed categories reveals substantial changes in this period. In the last part of the nineteenth century, their categorization was based mostly on language, and the distinctions that were made between Norwegians and minorities were largely cultural. The more pronounced race rhetoric of the interwar period re-shaped the concepts of nationalities and brought about a much greater emphasis on purely genealogical factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the relationship between demographic trends and nationalist ideologies through an analysis of fertility policies in France, Romania, Singapore and Israel. Each of these countries has sought to increase birthrates through government initiatives. I examine the extent to which pronatalist programmes in these countries reflect ethno-nationalist ideologies, as opposed to more inclusive civic/cultural nationalist visions, and find that policies are moving in a more civic/cultural nationalist direction. Pronatalist policies are less often specifically aimed at dominant racial/ethnic groups and are less oriented towards 'traditional' gender roles. I argue that ethno-nationalist visions of the nation may become less influential, in part due to demographic imperatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tries to make the case for a variant of the good life based on a synthesis of liberalism and ethnicity. Liberal communitarianism's treatment of ethnicity tends to fall under the categories of either liberal culturalism or liberal nationalism. Both, it is argued, fail to come to terms with the reality of ethnic community, preferring instead to define ethnicity in an unrealistic, cosmopolitan manner. By contrast, this essay squarely confronts four practices that are central to ethnic communities: symbolic boundary-maintenance; exclusive and inflexible mythomoteurs; the use of ancestry and race as boundary markers; and the desire among national groups to maintain their ethnic character. This article argues that none of these practices need contravene the tenets of liberalism as long as they are reconstructed so as to minimize entry criteria and decouple national ethnicity from the state. The notion of liberal ethnicity thereby constitutes an important synthesis of liberal and communitarian ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a great failure and mental morass concerning theory and political practice of nation and nationalism, including not only traditional approaches but late nationalism studies as well. The reason is a long-standing and widely shared quest for adequate definition of what does not exist, in reality, as a collective body. Nation is a powerful metaphor which two forms of social groupings - polity (state) and ethnic entity (the people) - are fighting to have as their exclusive property. In its latest manifestation, it is an argument for geopolitical engineering and for questioning the legitimacy of weaker collective actors on the part of the winners. There is no sense in defining states and ethnic groups by the category of a nation. The latter is a ghost word, escalated to a level of meta-cateogory through historic accident and inertia of intellectual prescription. A suggested 'hard scenario' for breaking the methodological impasse is a 'zero option', when both major clients for being a nation will be deprived of a luxury called by that Label. The process of dismantling the non-operational category should be started with the intellectual courage to forget the nation as an academic definition and extend this logic into the domain of politics and everyday discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problematic relationship between `Britishness' and the identities of UK ethnic minorities is further complicated in Scotland by the increasing salience of the Scottish dimension. This article discusses the relationship between reformulations of `post-British' national identities, and the position of Scottish Pakistani-Muslims. The study focuses on the preferred identities of young Pakistani-Scots in West Central Scotland, reporting chiefly on the results of the modified Twenty Statement Test [TST] as administered to sixty-three Scottish-Pakistani teenagers aged between fourteen and seventeen years, estimated as a significant percentage of the Glasgow Pakistani population in this age range. Religious, ethnic and nationality labels are all adopted by these respondents. Where there are no constraints on their identity labels, religious (Muslim) statements predominate, and where a choice of labels is provided, dual ethnicity labels are preferred. The results are theorized in relation to present deficiencies in the acceptance of plural or `hyphenate' identities within the United Kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical discourse on nationalism and ethnicity has crystallized around three schools of thought: primordialism, instrumentalism and constructivism. I take an instrumentalist approach to examine the processes that shaped the drafting of the new constitutions of Ethiopia and Eritrea, with particular focus on the role of élites in group identity definition, formation and mobilization. I argue that despite their similar ethnic and religious segmentation, levels of economic development, and cultural heritage, the qualitatively different approaches to group accommodation which Ethiopia and Eritrea have pursued are explained by and are functions of (i) each country's constitutive myths — that is, the trajectory of ethnicity traversed over time in altering existing myths and constructing alternative myths: (ii) the leaders' behaviour of avoiding risk at all cost; and (iii) the political uncertainties that prevailed in both countries at the time the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam was overthrown. Together, these variables point to a strong probability, if not inevitability, that such sharply different constitutions would be adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theoretical framework of multiple citizenship discourses is proposed for analysing the transformation of the structure of ethnic relations in the yishuv and Israel. An historical overview indicates how Israel's `incorporation regime' for its main ethnic and religious groups - ashkenazim, mizrachim, Orthodox-Jews, citizen and non-citizen Palestinians - was constituted through a hierarchical combination of three citizenship discourses: a collectivist republican discourse, based on the civic virtue of `pioneering' colonization; an ethno-nationaiist discourse, based on Jewish descent, and an individualist liberal discourse, based on civic criteria of membership. It is suggested that Israel's historical trajectory has consisted in its gradual transformation from a colonial to a civil society, and concomitantly in the gradual replacement of its republican citizenship discourse by a liberal discourse. Finally, the dilemmas of its ethnic and religious groups in choosing between the liberal and the ethno-nationalist citizenship discourses in the current period are charted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I examine the state-directed movement of ethnic groups. Such movements include the settlement of majority groups in peripheral regions inhabited by minorities, the relocation of minority groups within the state, and the expulsion of minorities from the state. An important theme of the article is that, while such policies have been implemented for centuries, modern state-directed movements are closely linked to the growth of nationalism. The study seeks to answer three important questions: (1) Why do states move ethnic groups? (2) How do states move ethnic groups? (3) Under what circumstances will states engage in such policies? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of others in the (re-)definition of national identity. A brief review of dominant theories of nationalism shows that the existence of the `other' is an implicit assumption made by most scholars. Nevertheless, the relationship between the nation and the other remains largely unexplored. However, national identity is defined not only from within, namely from the features that fellow-nationals share in common but also from without, that is, through distinguishing and differentiating the nation from other nations or ethnic groups. National identity becomes meaningful only through the contrast with others. This article introduces the notion of `significant others' to investigate the ways in which others may condition the formation or lead to a transformation of the identity of the ingroup. The Macedonian question and the emergence of a new Greek nationalism is used as a case-study to highlight the role of significant others in shaping the identity of the nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The persistence of ethnic communities is a neglected area of research. The study of ethnies over long time-spans requires comparison of different patterns of ethnic survival, in terms of symbols and myths of ethnic election. Such myths can be found in the ancient Near East, in Judea, Greece, Armenia, Persia, as well as Byzantium, Russia and Western Europe, mobilizing and inspiring ethnic survival. Four main patterns of ethnic survival are outlined: imperial-dynastic, communal-demotic, emigrant-colonist and diaspora-restoration. In each case, modern nationalism reinforces and politicizes the old myths of ethnic election and its forms and intensity can be explained in terms of these patterns of ethnic survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some terms have been coined to highlight the important relation between nationalism and ethnicity. However, there has been much confusion as to the meaning of such concepts as ethnonationalism, ethnic nationalism and mini-nationalism This article compares the three terms, as used respectively in the works of scholars Walker Connor, Anthony Smith and Louis Snyder. The comparison finds that since both Connor and Smith emphasized the ethnic dimension of nationalism, their ideas can be presented in one analytical framework. In fact, Connor's ethnonationalism and Smith's ethnic nationalism overlap with each other. However, Smith's theory of nationalism is comprehensive enough to take care of the fact that the nationalisms of many new states of today's world have no ethnic base at all, whereas Connor's analysis makes no mention of this. In this respect, Smith's model is preferred to that of Connor. Finally Snyder's mini-nationalism is seen as the least useful concept, since the use of size rather than ethnicity to classify nationalisms does not increase our understanding of the concept.

This article focuses on an article written by sociologist Anthony D. Smith, on whether common ethnicity and ethnic solidarity constitute preconditions for the successful formation of modem nations. In this article, it is here argued that ethnic solidarity at a large-enough scale to constitute a nation is a problematic notion. Solidarities beyond small local communities require ideological and political underpinning. Rather than being preconditions of nation-formation, ethnic homogeneity and solidarity are often products of a stable history of state and nation formation. The failures of some modern nation-states with diverse ethnic compositions are an indication of inadequacy of resources for achieving stable governability. The article, written by Smith is a polemic against the view, prevalent in the social-science literature, that nations are modern phenomena, produced by the processes of modernity, capitalism or industrialism, and that the myth of the historical nation is instrumentally constructed by the nationalists, an invention of tradition. Smith concedes that these processes are important in the creation of the modem nation, but argues that it can be successfully accomplished only if it proceeds from an already established ethnic community, existing from pre-modern times. Nation, in terms of modern civic conceptions, is based on territory, law, economy and education.

The article discusses the myth of the "modern nation" and the myths of nations. Two recent analysis by historians are cited. First, for John Breuilly, nationalism is typically a political argument, a tool for seizing the state by mobilizing, coordinating

The article focuses on an historical feeling of uniqueness in Newfoundland as well as an emergent sense of a more politicized group consciousness. Whether this translates into an ethnic identity or a sense of nationhood may be a debatable point still to be resolved, but Newfoundlanders appear to have the basis for such a sense of uniqueness. Indeed, their geographical status as an island people, their longevity as a resident population without large permanent infusions of non-Islanders, and federal-provincial conflicts amidst underdevelopment and blocked mobility suggest that such solidarity could be politicized still further. What has occurred in Newfoundland could be considered politicized regionalism or merely aggressive province building. But on the other hand, the confrontations with the federal government have occurred at the same time that cultural revival has taken place. These tensions have changed Newfoundland from being merely a place to reside to a homeland of Newfoundlanders as a people. Perhaps the best symbol of the distinctiveness between Newfoundland and Canada can be found in the reverence, which Newfoundlanders hold for the first day of July. On that day in 1916, the regiment that was Newfoundland's only contribution to the World War I was decimated in the first day of the Battle of Somme.

This article discusses the dilemmas of loyalty in western democracies. Perhaps the fault lies all with nationalism. Abolish nationalism, and racism and exclusiveness will disappear. But the movement of social and political emancipation which gave us democracy and liberalism, gives us also ethnic regeneration and nationalism, and once these movements surface, there is always the danger that they will inspire their more fervent devotees to exclusiveness and terror, particularly they were thwarted. If democratic values are widely felt by citizens then the democratic state will survive as a place for civil liberties and ethnic diversity. But if values of democracy are thinly spread and there are few inclusive territorial myths and institution, then the democratic state is likely to experience much conflict and its freedoms are likely to be curtailed. Whichever it is, problems of ethnic identity and regeneration will undoubtedly remain for the foreseeable future as the great test of democracy in plural states all over the world.

Elements of modernization theory are capable of providing crucial insights into the process of social mobilization in multicultural societies, especially in relation to nationalism as a prime political movement. The article explores some of the emerging issues and apparent contradictions left by the legacy of modernization theory in the 1960s, as well as the potential research utility for socio-linguists of concentrating directly on the relationship between social mobilization and nationalism. Attention will focus on three issues: the implications of adopting either a nation-building or nationality-formation approach to nationalism; claims and counter-claims that social mobilization is central to nationalist success through its reduction of the ethnic elite; and the attempt by psychologists to account for national loyalty, the desired product of social mobilization in multicultural societies. One of the central concerns of sociologically oriented theories of nationalism relates to the question how and why ethnic group cohesion grows and develops at specific times among some people and not others to a sufficient degree of intensity to become politically significant. Theories of national integration, on the other hand, begin with an examination of the state and ask how loyalties transcending those of primary groups are built, and how attachments to the institutions of state authority are developed among diverse peoples.

The article takes a look at political mobilization, political institutionalization and maintenance of ethnic conflict in the Republic of Ireland. An ethnic group and a nation is distinguished in terms of the inherent political dimension of the latter. Ethnic groups are those groups that entertain a subjective belief in their common descent because of similarities of physical type or customs or both or because of memories of colonization and migration. A nation is a community of sentiment which would adequately manifest itself in a state of its own. Thus what distinguishes nationalist conflict from ethnic conflict in general is that nationalist conflict is, to some extent, about political institutions. This may be seen as a proclivity towards statehood, or as simply the claim to distinctive political treatment. Though some of what follows has relevance for ethnic conflict as a whole, the main focus is on nationalist conflict. Adapting a theory developed for the purpose of explaining party systems and voter alignments, political mobilization and institutionalization as a major source of the persistence of nationalist attitudes has been emphasized.

Using Scotland and Wales as case studies, the article has argued that the upsurge in ethnic nationalism in Western advanced, industrial societies can be explained in terms of psychological consequences of post-1945 regional differences in modernization rates having shifted to favor traditionally subordinate ethnic groups. This shift redistributed power resources, largely expressed in the de facto form of education and wealth, to the advantage of these groups, a process which led in turn to the crystallization of a sense of collective deprivation and the belief that nationalism offered a better future than the continuation of the political status quo. The translation of this sense of collective deprivation into remedial political action was consummated by the emergence of an able and articulate nationalist leadership cadre in both Scotland and Wales. Ethnic identity was thereby translated into nationalist party growth.

The article presents the ethnicity and factionalism prevalent in Zimbabwe between the period 1957-1979, with the content support from various writings by African writers focusing on the problem of racism, black versus white. The writer Nathan Shamuyarira writes mainly about the struggle between blacks and whites in Zimbabwe, depicting lost opportunities for an early accommodation between the two races and foresees a larger conflict in his writing "Crisis in Rhodesia." Enoc Dumbutshena's "Zimbabwe Tragedy," decries the suffering and struggles of Zimbabwe's black people, who are unique in every respect having overcome many odds placed in their way by the white people. Race relation is a very important issue in Zimbabwe but the matter related to ethnicity or tribalism has largely been ignored in the country. The reason for delay in self analysis is mainly the pre-occupation with self-preservation among the would-be analysts of nationalist politics. The term ethnicity refers to as all groups of society characterized by a distinct sense of difference owing to culture and descent.

The theme of the paper is that the most significant factor accounting for the divergence between scholarly expectations and actuality has been a basic misunderstanding concerning the nature of nationalism. The most fundamental error involved in scholarly approaches to nationalism has been a tendency to equate nationalism with a feeling of loyalty to the state rather than with loyalty to the nation. The error of improperly equating nationalism with loyalty to the state is the consequence of a much broader terminological disease that plagues the study of global politics. It would be difficult to name four words more essential to global politics than are state, nation, nation-state and nationalism. But despite their centrality, all four terms are shrouded in ambiguity due to their imprecise, inconsistent and often totally erroneous usage. It is particularly paradoxical that the widespread misuse of the most elemental terms should be tolerated during a period in which so many authorities within the discipline are emphasizing the need for more precise and scientific vocabulary.

The article presents a case study related to language and nationalism in Wales. Wales is not a politically independent state but has, nevertheless, remained a partially distinct administrative entity following the Act of Union with England in 1536 and has retained a separate ethnic identity. Initially this identity was closely associated with the Welsh language in an essentially rural context. In the English-speaking north-eastern and southern margins of the country a Welsh ethnic identity is also retained, although this is now as much related to specifics of the industrial history of these regions, in an increasingly English-speaking environment, as to its former linguistic basis. As a reaction to the decline in the use of the language, the Wales Nationalist Party was founded in 1925. Following the continued decline in the use of the Welsh language from 26 per cent of the population in 1961 to 20.8 per cent in 1971, the future of the language and the resurgence of Welsh Nationalism have emerged as major social issues in Wales. The article concludes that it is highly likely that the use of Welsh will continue to decline in the future in the predominantly English-speaking areas. In contrast the situation appeared relatively stable in the Welsh-speaking core area, while positive expansion in the use of Welsh was recorded only amongst the pupils attending Welsh-medium schools.

Ethnic and Racial Studies has sought over the years to cover a wide range of debates about the study of race, ethnicity and nationalism. In doing so we have by no means always succeeded in covering fully questions about teaching and pedagogy. The periodical produced a special issue in 1996 that was framed around the teaching of race and ethnicity in a number of disciplines (vol. 19, No.4) and there have been occasional articles about this theme in the period since. A major part of this issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies is taken up by a special Symposium on the teaching of ethnic and racial studies. An important facet of research in this field is that in practice researchers have been pulled in a variety of directions, by both political and academic pressures. Given the rapid growth in both the research and teaching components of ethnic and racial studies in recent years it is perhaps not surprising that there has emerged an undercurrent of concern about the shifting boundaries of this field of scholarly inquiry.

In this article, the author replies to the comments of primatologist Pierre L. van den Berghe. He talks about sociobiological theory in the interpretation of animal society. This has become a central interest for a number of primatologists, as well as for some zoologists and others in related fields. The author says that according to van den Berghe, both ethnicity and race are extensions of the idioms of kinship, and therefore, ethnic and race sentiments are to be understood as an extended and attenuated form of kin selection. Kinship often becomes the basis of these powerful sentiments called nationalism, tribalism, racism and ethnocentrism. Human kinship and marriage are both biological and cultural, however, advocates of sociobiology adhere to a simple-minded casual model of one-gene-one-behavior-one-culture-trait. The author agrees that it is foolish to ignore the biological bases of human behavior. However, he wonders what those biological bases are, and concludes that they are physiological limitations rather than genetic predispositions.