Multinationalism and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Framework for Analysis

Abstract

The introduction to the special issue offers a six-points framework for analyzing both the impact of the pandemic on nationalism and the broader multinational state as well as the significance of multinationalism for the response to the pandemic. These points correspond to the following questions: (1) How has multinationalism (as a sociological fact and/or a political culture that has conditioned governance practices and institutional frameworks) shaped the response to the crisis? (2) How has the crisis affected the self-determination objectives and strategies of the nationalist movement? (3) Have national divides (as observed, for example, in public opinion and in statements from politicians) become more or less salient during, and as a result of, the crisis? (4) What issues have produced tensions between national communities, or between minority nations and the state? (5) What governments, parties, or individual politicians have most gained or lost from the crisis in terms of putting forward or managing self-determination claims? (6) What could be the impact of the crisis on the nationalist movement and on the multinational state as a whole?