Nationalizing states in the old ‘New Europe’ – and the new

Abstract

Abstract The literature on nationalism as a form of politics has focused on polity‐seeking (or polity‐upgrading) nationalist movements, paying much less attention to the nationalization of existing polities. This article reverses the emphasis. It develops a framework for the analysis of ‘nationalizing states’. These are states that are conceived by their dominant élites as nation‐states, as the states of and for particular nations, yet as ‘incomplete’ or ‘unrealized’ nation‐states, as insufficiently ‘national’ in a variety of senses. Almost all of the twenty‐odd new states of post‐communist Eurasia are nationalizing states in this sense. Without directly analysing developments in these incipient states ‐ a difficult task when so much is still in flux – this article seeks to develop a way of thinking about the projects and processes of ‘nationalization’ that are already observable in the new states, and that are likely to continue to play a key role in the coming years. It does so by way of a sustained examination of one particular nationalizing state ‐ the newly resurrected Polish state during the interwar period. The analysis of the Polish case is preceded by a more general analytical discussion of the politics and policies of ‘nationalization’ in interwar Europe; the essay concludes by discussing nationalization in today's new nation‐states, the incipient successor states to the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.