Revitalizing the 'Civic' and 'Ethnic' Distinction: Perceptions of Nationhood Across 44 Countries and Two Decades

Abstract

This article describes how contemporary publics think about the nation along Kohn’s classic distinction between “civic” and “ethnic” nationalism. The article makes three contributes to the existing literature. Firstly, it establishes a simple conceptual framework, which facilitates a better interpretation of the two-dimensional structure found in this and previous empirical studies. Secondly, it uses multi-classification-analysis to establish and interpret the two-dimensional space. The main logic is that perceptions of nationhood evolve in a contested “field” or “space.” Thirdly, the article demonstrates how countries are not permanently dominated by one perception of nationhood. Using three rounds of ISSP data, the article shows remarkable changes in perceptions of nationhood within the last two decades in some countries and stability in others.