Politics Of Nation Building Research Articles

Secular Framings

Abstract The secular Ghanaian state frames and governs ‘African Traditional Religion’ (‘ATR’) in three main ways. As culture and heritage, aspects of ‘ATR’ are integrated into public performances and national narratives, displaying the African identity of the Ghanaian nation. As providers of traditional forms of therapy, traditional shrines are administered as health facilities and supervised by the Ministry of Health. As religion, ‘ATR’ is counted as one of the country’s religions. This article discusses these framings and their social dynamics drawing on framing theories and secularity studies. Devising secular framings and eclectically appropriating traditional religious presences, the Ghanaian state seeks to govern ‘ATR’ and integrate it into its nation-building politics. Traditional religious actors have reappropriated these framings, carving out spaces of their own. The relations between ‘ATR’ and the Ghanaian state are subject to constant negotiations that impact both.

The Politics of Nation-building in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Retrospective Analysis of Early Postcolonial Education Policy in Ghana

The Politics of Nation-building in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Retrospective Analysis of Early Postcolonial Education Policy in Ghana

Forging Unity within Diversity: A Discourse-Theoretical Approach to Nation-Building Politics in the Chinese and Taiwanese Contexts

This article presents a theoretical framework on discursive nation-building processes in the Chinese and Taiwanese contexts by drawing on key notions in the discourse-theoretical account about identity construction, hegemonic articulation and myth-building, as proposed by prominent scholars of Discourse Theory, like Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe (1985). The framework is based on existing literature as well as findings from two case studies about discourses belonging to two different epochs in Chinese history: (1) Chinese and Taiwanese media narratives about the 1997 Hong Kong handover, published between mid-June and mid-July 1997 and (2) Lectures on Nationalism, presented in 1924 by dr. Sun Yat-sen, an early proponent of Chinese nationalism.

Managing Ethnicity and Constructing the Bangsa Malaysia (A United Malaysian Nation)*

The question of nation-building has always been a central issue in Malaysian politics. Whilst the coun try has been able to sustain stable politics since the 1969 racial tragedy, spawning two decades rapid socio-economic development until the 1997 Asian economic crisis, the project of nation-building remained a basic national agenda yet to be filly resolved. This short paper investigates the delicate process of nation-building in Malaysia in the post 1970s. especially in the context of the vision of constructing the Bangsa Malaysia or united Malaysian nation enshrined in Mahathir's Vision 2020 project which was introduced in 1991. The aim of the paper is firstly to highlight the underlying socio-political parameters that shaped and influenced the politics of nation-building in the country, and secondly to explore the viability of the project of Bangsa Malaysia in the context of the daunting challenges involved in the process of nation- building The paper contends that, based on the Malaysian experience, the potent interplay between the forces of ethnicity and nationalism constitute the crux of the problem in the politics of nation-building in Malaysia. This dialectic it is argued, stems from the prevalence of the varying 'nationalisms' within and across ethnic groups. These phenomena have not only shaped the pattern of ethnic political mobilization in the country, but above all, laid the most complex set of obstacles in the path of the project of nation-building. The paper argues that the project of constructing the Bangsa Malaysia therefore, can be seen as significant attempt by the state to reconcile the competing 'nationalism'. It can also be considered as an attempt to consolidate Malay nationalism and cultural pluralism, thus promoting the development of 'civic nationalism 'or creation of 'a supra-ethnic ' national identity. The 'nation', therefore, is depicted as a 'mosaic of cultures but with a strong fervour of Malay nationalism. However, the viability of the envisaged project is yet to be tested. The concept itself is still vague to many people and the challenges ahead are enormous, involving political, economic, socio-cultural and religious issues. Indeed the project risks becoming the 'latest ' in the series of competing notions of 'nation-of- intent' circulating in Malaysia. The paper contends that whilst, to some extent, the socio-political landscape of Malaysian society has been rapidly changing, especially in the past two decades of Mahathir’s reign, ethnicity still pervades Malaysian political life. The paper probably differs from many previous studies on nation-building in Malaysia, thus, deepening the understanding of Malaysia politics and society.

Inventing a country : comparative perspectives on the politics of nation-building

Inventing a country : comparative perspectives on the politics of nation-building

The politics of nation-building: making of co-nationals, refugees, and minorities, by Harris Mylonas, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2013, 280 pp., $29.99 (paperback) and $89.99 (cloth), ISBN 9781107020450

In The Politics of Nation-Building, Harris Mylonas explores the various policies that the emerging states in the Balkans used to manage diversity and attain order. To be sure, establishing boundari...

The politics of nation-building. Making co-nationals, refugees, and minorities, by Harris Mylonas, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2012, 255 pp., US$21 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-107-66199-8

The politics of nation-building. Making co-nationals, refugees, and minorities, by Harris Mylonas, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2012, 255 pp., US$21 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-107-66199-8 - Volume 42 Issue 5

Religious Revival and the Politics of Nation Building: Reinterpreting the 1963 ‘Buddhist crisis’ in South Vietnam

AbstractScholars have portrayed the 1963 ‘Buddhist crisis’ in South Vietnam as a struggle for religious freedom, as a political conspiracy, or as a manifestation of ancient religious beliefs and practices. This paper, in contrast, argues that the crisis emerged from a clash of modernizing visions. The Buddhist-led protests that took place in South Vietnam in 1963 were linked to the Vietnamese Buddhist revival, a nationalist reform movement that began during the early twentieth century. The protests also reflected growing Buddhist anxieties about the Ngo Dinh Diem government's nation-building agenda for South Vietnam. By the time the crisis began, Buddhist leaders had concluded that this agenda (which Diem referred to as the ‘Personalist Revolution’) was incompatible with their plans to realize Vietnam's destiny as a ‘Buddhist nation’. In addition to reinterpreting the origins of the crisis, this paper examines how the course of events was shaped by the personalities and agendas of particular Buddhist and government leaders, and especially by fierce rivalries among members of Diem's family. These internal tensions help to explain the failure of attempts to end the crisis through negotiations, as well as Diem's decision to crush the movement by force in August 1963.

The Logic of the State in (Re)Building a Nation: When Do States Change Their Policies Toward Ethnicity and Nationhood?

The Politics of Nation-Building: Making Co-Nationals, Refugees, and Minorities. By Harris Mylonas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 248 pp., $29.99 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-1-107-66199-8). The formation of nation-states and the process of nation-building in different cultural and historical settings have received considerable attention within studies of nationalism. However, while macro-historical accounts explain the emergence and spread of nation-building projects across different cases, variations and shifts in nation-building policies within and across different cases need further theorization. In other words, the question of why some political elites pursue policies of assimilation while others choose accommodation or exclusion (and under what conditions the same political elites would change from one policy option to another) has been understudied. In The Politics of Nation-Building , Harris Mylonas attempts to build a new and insightful theoretical framework that explains such questions by studying the post-Ottoman Balkan States after World War I. In his theoretical approach, Mylonas builds upon the existing literature on nation-building by combining insights from comparative politics and international relations. His causal mechanism focuses on the interstate relations and foreign policy goals of the political elites, which explain the variation of nation-building policies in domestic politics. In the preface of the book, after explaining his motivation for the study of nation-building policies and …

Contestation and adaptation: the politics of national identity in China

Acknowledgements Chapter 1: National Identity Contestation and Adaptation in China Chapter 2: Politics of Nation-Building in China in Historical Perspective Chapter 3: National Identity Contestation Among the Uyghurs Chapter 4: Emigration and Fragmentation of the Chinese Koreans Chapter 5: Ambiguities of National Identity among the Mongols Chapter 6: Cultural Revival and National Identity Adaptation among the Dai Chapter 7: The International Dimension of the Tibet Question Chapter 8: Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

The Politics of Nation-Building: Making Co-Nationals, Refugees, and Minorities by Harris Mylonas (review)

Reviewed by: The Politics of Nation-Building: Making Co-Nationals, Refugees, and Minorities by Harris Mylonas Neovi M. Karakatsanis Harris Mylonas . The Politics of Nation-Building: Making Co-Nationals, Refugees, and Minorities. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press . 2012 . Pp. xxiii + 255 . 10 figures, 1 graph, 8 illustrations, 8 maps, 38 tables. Paperback $29.99 . In The Politics of Nation-Building: Making Co-Nationals, Refugees, and Minorities, Harris Mylonas explores the conditions under which states decide to target “non-core groups” (as opposed to “minorities,” which, despite the title of his book, Mylonas rejects as too narrow a concept). Defining such non-core groups as “any aggregation of individuals that is perceived as an unassimilated ethnic group (on a linguistic, [End Page 209] religious, physical, or ideological basis)” (xx, note 1), Mylonas sets out to determine when such groups will be targeted with assimilation, accommodation (the extension of minority status), or exclusionary policies (including population exchanges, deportations, and mass killings) by the host state in which they reside. Aiming to unravel the logic of political elites’ decision-making as they pursue one or a combination of these nation-building policies, the author attempts to construct a theory that explains the selection of these policies as well as accounts for policy change over time. Mylonas argues that the most prominent extant explanations in the social sciences—ones that focus on domestic variables, such as ethnic politics, political ideologies of ruling elites, regime type, etc.—are inadequate. His theory emphasizes, instead, the importance of international and geostrategic considerations. Theorizing that the variation in nation-building policies across space and time is the result of interactions between the host state and an external power (rather than between the host state and the non-core group), Mylonas maintains that external involvement drives the mobilization and politicization of the non-core group, the host state’s perception of it and, ultimately, the host state’s policies toward it. Using the Balkans and, in particular, the six Balkan states that were a part of the Ottoman Empire for more than two centuries (Greece; the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes; Romania; Bulgaria; Albania; and Turkey) as test cases for his theory, Mylonas maintains that the “protracted intermingling of peoples, common experiences of past rule, similar modernization trajectories, a great deal of external involvement, and variation in the timing of their state-building experiences” (49) make these states an excellent context in which to test his theory against other well-known explanations, including the cultural distance, status reversal, and homeland arguments, among others. He begins by testing his theory on a cross-national dataset (which Mylonas himself compiled) of all non-core groups within these Balkan states in the immediate post-World War I period and finds that his argument is corroborated in 81% of cases (73 out of 91 observations). To further enrich his analysis, Mylonas then devotes an entire chapter (Chapter 5) to explaining the eighteen cases that were incorrectly predicted by his model and, in so doing, identifies a number of relevant methodological caveats pertinent to the nation-building process. Had Mylonas stopped with the analysis of the 91 data points, his study would have likely left some readers questioning its ability to account for political elites’ attitudes and motivations in their pursuit of nation-building. However, Mylonas does not stop with the large-N study. Instead, he integrates several in-depth case studies, including a subnational study of Western Greek Macedonia as well as of Serbia and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, into his research. He does so to take a closer look at what he refers to as the “mechanisms at work” behind the nation-building process (12). Using secondary sources, archival materials, and relevant legislation to more closely analyze state policies toward non-core groups at the subnational level in Western Greek Macedonia, for example, Mylonas attempts to discern the “intentions” and “reasoning” behind the various policies towards non-core groups there (114). As Mylonas correctly claims, uncovering the motivations and intentions of political elites (as opposed to just looking at the policy outcomes) could not have taken place in the absence of this more qualitative and in-depth approach. Similarly...

Harris Mylonas, The Politics of Nation-Building: Making Co-Nationals, Refugees, and Minorities

Article Harris Mylonas, The Politics of Nation-Building: Making Co-Nationals, Refugees, and Minorities was published on April 1, 2013 in the journal Comparative Southeast European Studies (volume 61, issue 4).

Nationalism, development, and social policy: The politics of nation-building in sub-Saharan Africa

This article examines the relationship between nation-building and social policy in post-independence sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It argues that post-independence nationalist leaders used health, housing, and education programmes to foster a sense of national unity that would transcend the existing ethnic divisions created by the arbitrary drawing of state boundaries during colonization. Yet, in SSA, the neo-liberal turn of the 1980s favoured the decline of state-level integration and solidarity, which helped trigger territorial mobilization and fragmentation. As a consequence, the politics of welfare retrenchment in SSA does more than simply reduce benefits and increase inequalities; it also potentially weakens national unity.

Joyce Appleby . The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism . New York : W.W. Norton and Company . 2010 . Pp. xii, 494. $29.95.

Critics of capitalism since Karl Marx have recognized a revolutionary creativity that enabled it to overcome the many contradictions thrown up by its unprecedented capacity for destruction and dislocation. Joseph Schumpeter captured the contradiction elegantly with the phrase “creative destruction.” Inextricably entangled, the two aspects are equally indispensable to grasping capitalism and the modernity it has dynamized if not created. This book tracks the revolutions of capitalism from its English origins to the global present, with emphasis more on the creativity than the destructiveness. Joyce Appleby takes the reader with fluent ease through more than two centuries of history organized around the genealogy of capitalism: from incipient beginnings with Iberian and Dutch overseas enterprises that provided the conditions for its flowering in eighteenth-century England to its globalization following World War II. Capitalism “began in England with the convergence of agricultural improvements, global explorations, and scientific advances … and followed the power trail that England projected around the globe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries” (p. 21). Its origins rested on contingencies but once it had come into existence, it spread with near inevitability, first to Western Europe and, eventually, globally. Capitalism took new routes with newcomers to its domain in accordance with national circumstances. It also got entangled in the politics of nation-building. By the second half of the nineteenth century, Germany and the United States joined England as the powerhouses of capitalism. The ensuing contest for supremacy, punctuated by two world wars of unprecedented ferocity, was resolved by the emergence of the U.S. after World War II as the unchallenged capitalist power, unchallenged until recently, that is, when developments in societies of East and South Asia suggest perhaps a new phase in its unfolding.

Anxious Beginnings: Mental Illness, Reproduction and Nation Building in ‘Prelude’ and Prelude to Christopher

This article explores relationships between Katherine Mansfield's ‘Prelude’ (1918) and Eleanor Dark's Prelude to Christopher (1934). Mansfield's presence in Australian literary culture of the interwar period, together with Dark's knowledge of her writing, indicates that Dark was influenced, perhaps directly, by ‘Prelude’ when she wrote Prelude to Christopher. Both texts use modernist literary techniques to explore relationships between mental and physical illness and reproduction in the context of emerging feminist politics. The colonial contexts of ‘Prelude’ and Prelude to Christopher impact the treatment of modernist themes by interrogating the socially-prescribed role of woman as childbearer in the nation-building politics of the new colonial nation and its cultural, economic and scientific ideologies. Investigating links between Mansfield and Australian modernist women writers points to the possibility of a regional response to modernism.

Biblical Archaeology and the Politics of Nation-Building

Since the time of the British mandate, Zionist and, later, Israeli politics of nation-building has strongly influenced ‘biblical archaeology’ and has significantly undermined the integrity of Israeli scholarship. Critiques from Yael Zerubavel and Keith Whitelam to Nadia Abu El-Haj and Raz Kletter have repeatedly pointed out the consistent nationalistic distortions that have infected the field. The efforts of critical scholars to write a history of Palestine independent of biblical perspectives have corrected such distortions since the 1980s and have raised considerable doubt concerning the legitimacy of the Judeo-ethnocentrism which dominates nationalist Israeli claims on the heritage of ancient Palestine and the Bible.

‘The Crucible of the Malayan Nation’: The University and the Making of a New Malaya, 1938–62

AbstractLike so many features of the British Empire, policy for colonial higher education was transformed during the Second World War. In 1945 the Asquith Commission established principles for its development, and in 1948 the Carr–Saunders report recommended the immediate establishment of a university in Malaya to prepare for self-government. This institution grew at a rate that surpassed expectations, but the aspirations of its founders were challenged by lack of resources, the mixed reactions of the Malayan people and the politics of decolonisation. The role of the University of Malaya in engineering a united Malayan nation was hampered by lingering colonial attitudes and ultimately frustrated by differences between Singapore and the Federation. These differences culminated in the university's partition in January 1962. In the end it was the politics of nation-building which moulded the university rather than the other way round.

Women Suffragists and the National Politics in Early Republican China, 1911–1915

The Chinese suffragists in the early 1910s attempted to inject gender into early Republican politics. They employed a new rhetoric of citizens’ civil rights and new institutional practices to do so. Suffragists acquired power and authority in the public sphere, questioned the authority of the National Assembly and Legislature, and interfered with the merger of the Nationalist party. They defined the nature of the Republic and defended women’s place in it by challenging the political dominance of men. The suffrage movement shaped the modern politics of nation building, democracy and subjectivity in China.

The Lithuanian National Intelligentsia and the Women’s Issue, 1883–1914

The paper discusses the gendering of the Lithuanian national movement during its formative stage, 1883–1914. It concentrates on the intelligentsia’s debate on the women’s question, which served as one of the most significant cultural battlegrounds for the national elite, helping to define its own identity and new directions for Lithuanian nationalism. Through the discussion of different marital strategies and women’s roles in national politics as seen by the male intelligentsia, the paper argues that, despite the harsh critique of traditional peasant gender relations, the debate amounted to women’s virtual domestication. For male patriots, the emancipation of Lithuanian women meant, first of all, accepting the role of patriotic wives, i.e., responsibility for the education of children, or the role of nation mothers, which entailed nurturing new members of the community. A few secular and independent women writers were welcomed into nation-building politics but only as junior partners.

Contesting the Classical: The Tamil Isai Iyakkam and the Politics of Custodianship

The Tamil Isai Iyakkam (Tamil Music Movement) developed as an auxiliary element of the Tani Tamil movement, which owed its genesis to the course of non-Brahmin agitation in the Madras presidency from around the closing decades of the 19th century. A key element in the movement was the celebration of the Tamil language, which was identified as the principal vehicle for articulating a distinct identity and setting it apart from the trajectory of mainstream Indian nationalism. In due course, the issue of language entered into the larger politics of culture and custodianship, and was deployed to critique the nationalist cultural project that was so vital to the politics of nation building. This paper proposes to investigate the issues of cultural consumption and custodianship in the context of the Tamil movement, to identify the points of convergence between the nationalist and regional (in this case, Tamil) cultural projects and finally, to understand the limited impact of the Tamil movement in reclaiming the site of neo-classical culture. More specifically, the paper will look at classical music as one of the more significant emblems of the cultural project, which addressed the question of the performing arts as an aesthetic inheritance as well as a social network of practitioners and traditional performing communities. The delineation of the project involved not just the remaking of an artistic tradition but also the repositioning of communities of performers associated with the tradition.