State National Identity Research Articles

Dictionary of world politics

A ready-reference encyclopedia that includes short definitions and brief explanations of modern political terms that are used in countries throughout the world. The more than 2,000 entries are concisely written and organized in an A-to-Z format allowing for quick search. This comprehensive reference has taken into account emerging nation-state identities, spreading democracy, instant communication and other forces that have created new relationships that require new definitions. Nearly every nation in the world is briefly described including important political events. The entries in the Dictionary of World Politics include familiar terminology such as McCarthyism or absentee ballot, but also dozens of less well-known terms that are associated with foreign events, countries for politics such as: cabal - in political terms, a group that conspires secretly to achieve some goal, such as the overthrow of a popular ruler; cadi - in Morocco and Algeria, official who heads local government in a rural commune; Islamic judge who presides over the religious court that uses the Qur'an as its law; and, dzong - in Bhutan, a monastic fortress that also serves as a center of local government. Dictionary of World Politics also contains an extensive bibliography. It is appropriate for academic and public libraries as well as high schools with Advanced Placement programs.

Globalization

The world polity and cultural system are relatively stateless, but they legitimate strong nation-state identities as the dominant actors. This produces very strong tendencies for the adoption of common models of modernity, despite extraordinary differences in resources and local culture. Local distinctiveness is also legitimated, so long as it is not inconsistent with homogeneity on the main dimensions of stratification and identity.

To Die in this Way: Nicaraguan Indians and the Myth of Mestizaje, 1880-1965A Finger in the Wound: Body Politics in Quincentennial Guatemala

To Die in this Way: Nicaraguan Indians and the Myth of Mestizaje, 1880-1965A Finger in the Wound: Body Politics in Quincentennial Guatemala

To Euro or Not to Euro?

This article attempts to explain the variation in post-Maastricht elite attitudes toward the single currency in Western Europe. It concentrates on the British reluctance to join the single currency in the first round as well as the French and German continuing support for it. We argue, first, that explanations based solely on material conceptions of actors' interests — whether economic or geopolitical — are insufficient in explaining the variation in attitudes. There are as many good economic or geopolitical reasons in favour of the Euro as there are against it. In particular, perceived instrumental interests of actors as such do not explain the considerable variation in attitudes. Rather, we claim that actors' perception of their material and instrumental interests with regard to the Euro are deeply influenced by their visions of European political order. Second, the visions about European order which give political meaning to EMU, need to be understood in the framework of identity politics. Differences in the construction of collective elite identities pertaining to the nation-state and to Europe explain the controversies among the political elites in the three countries as well as the variation in attitudes. While the French and German political elites — from the centre-right to the centre-left — have incorporated `Europe' into their nationally defined collective identities, British policy-makers including New Labour remain hesitant. Third, on a more conceptual level, this article does not try to push an `identity versus interest' argument. Rather, we claim that the causal arrows run both ways. Collective nation-state identities define the realm of instrumental or material interests considered legitimate and appropriate in a given political discourse. We claim this to be the case in Britain and Germany. The more identity constructions are contested or in flux in a political discourse, however, the more likely it is that those constructions carry the day which actors see as furthering their perceived instrumental, political or economic interests. We argue that this was the case in France.

Constructing Europe? The evolution of French, British and German nation state identities

This article tackles the following puzzle. Why is it that we cannot observe much Europeanization of 'Anglo-Saxon exceptionalism' over the past fifty years, while 'Germanness' has spelt European since the end of the 1950s and 'French exceptionalism', at least recently, also comes in European colours? We argue that a combination of three factors accounts for this variation in the extent to which nation state identities have become European. The first condition is that any new idea about political order, in order to be considered legitimate, must resonate with core elements of older visions of the political order such as 'state-centred republicanism' in France, 'parliamentary democracy and external sovereignty' in Great Britain, and 'federalism, democracy and social market economy' in Germany. These older understandings of political order therefore delimit the degree to which 'Europe' can be incorporated in given nation state identities. The second condition is that new visions about political order circulating in transnational discourses can most easily be promoted domestically during 'critical junctures' when existing ideas about political order are collectively challenged and contested. Under these circumstances, perceived political interests and the power resources of political actors to a large extent explain which ideas among those available in a given context are being promoted and come to dominate. Finally, nation state identities which have become consensual in a given polity are likely to remain rather stable over time, since actors tend to become socialized into their new collective identity and gradually internalize its content. Over time, nation state identities tend to become embedded in political institutions and political culture and the degree to which political elites are able to manipulate identity constructions narrows considerably.

Identity and transnationalization in German school textbooks

Germany provides an interesting puzzle from a comparative perspective to the study of nation-state identities in textbooks. Unlike its Asian counterparts, and more so than other European countries, in Germany, history and civics textbooks display a prudence in representations of national identity. Rather than asserting national myths and irredentist narratives as the core components of nationhood, the textbooks focus on the representation of a more globalized and diversified world, and the place of a relativized German identity in it. In this paper, the author explicates the postwar identity trends as depicted in German textbooks and offers a set of explanatory factors that underwrite these trends—the disposition of Germany vis-à-vis the European Union, the institutional structure of the school system and textbook production, and the nature of the actors involved in textbook reformation efforts.

The Changing Logic of Political Citizenship: Cross-National Acquisition of Women's Suffrage Rights, 1890 to 1990

The authors analyze the acquisition of women's suffrage in 133 countries from 1890 to 1990. Throughout the twentieth century the influence of national political and organizational factors has declined and the importance of international links and influences has become increasingly important. These findings indicate that the franchise has become institutionalized worldwide as a taken-for-granted feature of national citizenship and an integral component of Nation-State identity : the prevailing model of political citizenship has become more inclusive

Toward a psychological nationalism.

The concept of nationalism has only recently entered the psychological vocabulary, especially as a topic of study by Latin Americans. The concepts of nation-state, ideology, and national identity are examined in an effort to understand nationalism. Relevant studies are briefly reviewed as an introduction to a description of the kind of nationalism that is relevant to psychology-that is, psychological nationalism. Such a nationalism is considered impossible to accomplish until a more equitable international economy is achieved.

Celebrating Nikolaus Day: Ideology and Emotion in a German Children's Ritual

A child growing up in Western society is confronted with a complex array of educational ideas and institutions. Discovering their meanings and the range of authority of various educators can be an arduous process for the child. I shall focus on a few themes related to the rearing and educating of children in a German community. Through an analysis of a ritual event in kindergarten and its corresponding celebration in the local music association, I attempt to show how these themes appear in ritual situations and how they are revealed to the children. Normative statements regarding the relationship between the individual and the collectivity, which appear in various forms during a person's lifetime, are embedded in the rituals I describe. The main point is that the ideological and moral mission of the ritual is part of the more encompassing person-forming project of upbringing. The concomitant arousal of emotional conflicts is seen by adults as more or less unintended consequences, but the emotions that the rituals induce in the young performers are better interpreted as part of the message that makes the ritual efficacious. The emotional aspects are particularly important for children since they do not have the experience and knowledge of adults and are not as capable of understanding symbolizations. ERZIEHUNG: LEARNING TO BE A PERSON This article concerns how children in a German parish are reared and about some of the institutions engaged in this endeavor.(2) The topic of person-forming raises questions relating to issues of a more general nature; e.g., individualism and Western conceptions of the person, ideas about the nation-state and national identity, and conceptions about learning and about the world of pedagogics. The idea of the person does not necessarily stand out as a clear-cut entity in Western thinking, but there seems to be an overall adherence to certain notions about the person as a bounded, independent, rational being who acts and chooses by free will (Lukes 1985). The person is somehow made autonomous in relation to the social world, yet the individual will not become a person other than through the dedicated endeavors of society. Western societies, particularly, have a great preoccupation with techniques of child-rearing, of defining what a child is, and what is a natural and normal development. There are rival orientations of how best to rear children and there are endless discussions and political debates about form and content in education. Various writers on Germany (cf. Dahrendorf 1965; Dumont 1986; Forsythe 1989), point to a particular concern with personhood in terms of being German. This has to do with notions about individual freedom, but also with a strong sense that being part of a whole entails subordination to the collectivity. I found German people were continuously concerned with such questions. How to raise children (Erziehung) properly in Germany is a central concern, and at times quite demanding of children, parents, and teachers, Through a long process of learning, the child is thought to be transformed into a good and capable person who can master the hardships of life. Erziehung is also conceptualized as the main means by which to realize the good, sound society and state. Recurring proclamations of cultural and social crisis are not seldom related to faults in the upbringing and educating of children (cf. Kupffer 1984). Erziehung is regarded as the process of separating the person from an amorphous nature, the good from the potentially evil, through a technique of teaching and learning that combines intricate forms of praise and punishment. It operates progressively through the institutions of family, kindergarten, school, and church. Notions of order and freedom are closely linked. People believe that through proper upbringing and education a child will become a socially acceptable being, an orderly and free person (ordnungsliebend und selbstandig, literally, a lover of order and independence), and one that is capable of or fit for living (lebensfahig). …