Nation-State Building and its Alternatives

Abstract

The end of the First World War saw a shift in the political expectations of the national elites in East Central Europe from autonomy to national sovereignty. The acceptance of democratic values and promise of social improvement informed the debate over the meaning of national self-determination and forms of its implementation. In this context, the reality of an ethnically mixed population presented a challenge. While cultural autonomy continued to occupy an important place in the political thought of especially Jewish and German communities, generally the vision of a unitary nation became dominant, with minorities’ territorial demands perceived as a threat. Discourses of regionalism, democratic decentralization, and intrastate federalism kept challenging this model. Federalist projects and visions of regional cooperation addressed the issue of the sustainability of order based on small nation-states. It was in this context Nationalism Studies emerged as an academic subdiscipline, studying nationalism from legal, sociological, and political perspectives.