National Identity in the Era of Globalization: Crisis and Reconstruction

Abstract

The era of globalization is posing a variety of challenges to national identity. In order to meet these challenges, it is important to offer theoretical scientific interpretations of them. A scrutiny of national identity as a concept reveals that national identity is actually a “four in one” combination of institutional identity, interest identity, cultural identity and non-national community identity, with formative mechanisms characterized the unity of the primordial state and the constructive, expressive forms characterized by the unity of consciousness and action, content characterized by the unity of politics and culture, and maintenance mechanisms characterized by the unity of emotion and self-interest. In the global age, national identity crisis usually arises in political, economic and cultural levels. The root cause for national identity crisis lies in the ineffectiveness of nation states’ self-governance. In order to promote the construction of national identity in the global age, we need to: (1) promote reform of the political system, explore democratic models of governance, and create the institutional preconditions for national identity; (2) promote economic development, ensure fairness and justice, and guarantee interests in national identity; (3) develop national culture, strengthen value integration and enrich the cultural significance of national identity; and (4) recognize different levels of community development and promote community integration in national identity.