print

Nationalism, Separatism, and Democracy. New Patterns of National Identity in “Old” Europe

Semenenko I.S.,

Deputy Director for Scientific Work, Head of Centre for Comparative Socio-Economic and Political Studies, Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), Russian Academy of Sciences, isemenenko@mail.ru

elibrary_id: 251670 | ORCID: 0000-0003-2529-9283 |

DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2018.05.07

Rubric: Theory and Methodology of Political Studies

For citation:

Semenenko I.S. Nationalism, Separatism, and Democracy. New Patterns of National Identity in “Old” Europe. – Polis. Political Studies. 2018. No. 5. P. 70-87. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2018.05.07

Abstract

The author proposes a new approach to the interpretation of political phenomena traditionally described in both academic and political discourse as “nationalism” and “separatism”. “Nationalism” as a concept can provide a research framework for evaluating the factors that provoke ethnic tensions in democracies and stimulate their transformation into open conflicts between the central state and regional authorities in regions possessing a certain level of cultural – economic – political autonomy, but it needs to be updated to take into account the “new nationalism” phenomenon. “New nationalism” has recently taken root in the nation states of “old” Europe in regions with a high level of civic activism and economic and welfare development. Differing nationalist agendas comprise a situational combination of cultural, social and economic factors, which are channeled into political protest. The contestation over identity issues in territorial communities within the nation state are used by political elites to promote preferential tax policies, budget autonomy and an independent social and cultural policy, especially in the use of language and in education. At the core of the political agenda is the “right to decide” and to choose the priorities of community development which is promoted by democratic political agents of diverse political affiliation, predominantly centrist, in coalition with former radical nationalists who have abandoned radical political activities. An overview of regionalist contention in Europe indicates possible future transformations in the organization of political space in democracies where identity issues in hand with consistent development strategies will be the key consolidating factors for political communities involved in the integration processes. 

Keywords

nationalism; national identity; political identity; identity politics; civil society; democracy; separatism; regionalism; autonomy; European integration project; European Union; political space; new nationalism.

 Full Text 

Anderson B. Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso. 1983. 224 p.

Antonsich M. Living in diversity: Going beyond the local/national divide. – Political Geography. Vol. 63. March 2018. P. 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2017.12.001

Bechhofer F., McCrone D. Choosing National Identity. – Sociological Research Online. 2010. Vol. 15. No. 3. P. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.5153/sro.2191

Beck U. The Cosmopolitan Vision. Cambridge, UK/Malden, MA: Polity Press. 2006. 202 p.

Beck U. Living in and Coping with World Risk Society: the Cosmopolitan Turn. – Polis. Political Studies. 2012. No. 5. P. 44-58. (In Russ.) URL: http://www.politstudies.ru/article/4615 (accessed 07.08.2018).

Billig M. Banal Nationalism. London: Sage Publications Ltd. 1995. 208 p.

Brubaker R. Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. 1992. 270 p.

De Cleen B. “Flemish Friends, Let us Separate!” The Discursive Struggle for Flemish Nationalist Civil Society in the Media. – Javnost: The Public. Journal of the European Institute for Communication and Culture. 2015. Vol. 22. No. 1. P. 37–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2015.1017270

Drobizheva L.M. National Identity as a Means of Reducing Ethnic Negativism. – Mir Rossii. 2017. Vol. 26. No. 1. P. 7–31. (In Russ.)

Edensor T. National Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life. Oxford: Berg Publishers. 2002. 224 p.

Ethnic Conflict Monitor. Moscow: IMEMO RAS. (In Russ.) URL: https://www.imemo.ru/ethnopolit- ical-conflict-monitor/ (accessed 06.08.2018).

Everyday Nationhood. Theorising Culture, Identity and Belonging after Banal Nationalism. Ed. by Skey M., Antonsich M. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan UK. 2017. 339 p. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57098-7

Fagerholm A. Ethnic and Regionalist Parties in Western Europe: A Party Family? – Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism. 2016. Vol. 16. No. 2. Р. 304-339. https://doi.org/10.1111/sena.12191

Gellner E. Nations and Nationalism. (Russ. ed.: Gellner E. Natsii i natsionalizm. Moscow: Progress Publishers. 1991. 320 p.)

Governing through Diversity. Migration Societies in Post-Multiculturalist Times. Ed. by T. Matejskova, M. Antonsich. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. 2015. 213 p. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-43825-6

Greenfeld L. Democracy, Ethnic Diversity and Nationalism. – Nationalism and Internationalism in the Post-Cold War Era. Ed. by K. Goldmann, U. Hannerz, Ch. Westin. London, New York: Routledge. 2000. Р. 24-35.

Identichnost’: Lichnost’, obshchestvo, politika. Entsiklopedicheskoe izdanie [Identity: The Individual, Society, and Politics. An Encyclopedia]. Ed. by I. Semenenko. Moscow: Ves MIR Publishers. 2017. 992 p. (In Russ.)

Khenkin S. Separatism, Catalonian Way. – Mirovaya ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya. 2018. No. 5. Vol. 62. P. 29-40. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.20542/0131-2227-2018-62-5-29-40

Kholodkovsky K.G. Separatism in Western Europe: A XXI Century Perspective. – South-Russian Journal of Social Sciences. 2018. Vol. 19. No. 2. P. 27-37. (In Russ.)

Lieven A. Don’t Fear the New Nationalism. – National Interest. 2017. June 25. URL: https://nation-alinterest.org/feature/dont-fear-the-new-nationalism-21307 (accessed 07.08.2018)

Lijphart A. Democracy in Plural Societies. A Comparative Exploration. (Russ. ed.: Lijphart A. Demokratiya v mnogosostavnykh obshchestvakh. Sravnitel’noe issledovanie. Moscow: Aspect Press. 1997. 287 p.)

Malakhov V.S. The Pacer. – Otechestvennye zapiski. 2004. No. 3. (In Russ.) URL: http://www.strana-oz.com/2004/3/inohodec (accessed 06.06.2018).

Malakhov V.S. Natsionalizm kak politicheskaya ideologiya [Nationalism as a Political Ideology]. Moscow: KDU Publishers. 2005. 320 p. (In Russ.)

McCrone D. The Sociology of Nationalism: Tomorrow’s Ancestors. London: Routledge. 1998. 224 p. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203428856

Nairn T. The Break-up of Britain: Crisis and Neo-Nationalism. London, New Left Books. 1977. 368 p.

Noy F., Holemans D. Burgercollectieven in kaart gebracht. – Oikos 78. 2016. No. 3. Р. 69-81. URL: https://www.oikos.be/tijdschrift/archief/jaargang-2016/oikos-78-3-2016/1053-78-10-noy-en-holemans-burgercollectieven-in-kaart-gebracht/file (accessed 07.08.2018).

Pallaver G. South Tyrol’s Changing Political System: from Dissociative on the Road to Associative Conflict Resolution. – Nationalities Papers. The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity. 2014. Vol. 42. No. 3. P. 376-398. https://doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2013.856393

Popov F.A. Geografiya setsessionizma v sovremennom mire [Geography of Secessionism in the Modern World]. Moscow: Novyi Khronograf Publishers. 2012. 672 p. (In Russ.)

Prokhorenko I.L. Spanish Experience of Interethnic Relations and Foreign Migration Regulation. – Mirovaya ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya. 2015. No. 12. Vol. 59. P. 80-89. (In Russ.)

Prokhorenko I.L. Evropeiskaya integratsiya i problema separatizma v gosudarstvakh-chlenakh Evropeiskogo soyuza [European Integration and the Problem of Separatism in the Member States of the European Union]. Moscow: IMEMO RAS. 2018. 93 p. (In Russ.)

Renan E. Qu’est qu’une nation? (Conférence prononcée le 11 mars 1882 à la Sorbonne). – Qu’est-ce qu’une nation? Littérature et identité nationale de 1871 à 1914. Texte intégral de Ernest Renan. Sous la direction de Ph. Forest. Paris: Pierre Bordas et fils, Éditeur. 1991. P. 12-48.

Ruiz Vieyetez E. A New Political Status for the Basque Country? – Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe. 2013. Vol. 12. No. 2. P. 79-105. URL: http://www.ecmi.de/fileadmin/downloads/publications/JEMIE/2013/Ruiz.pdf (accessed 07.08.2018).

Semenenko I.S. Nations, Nationalism, National Identity: New Dimensions in Academic Discourse. – Mirovaya ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya. 2015. No. 11. Vol. 59. P. 91-102. (In Russ.)

Semenenko I.S. Grazhdanskaya identichnost’ [Civic Identity]. – Identichnost’: Lichnost’, obshchestvo, politika. Entsiklopedicheskoe izdanie [Identity: The Individual, Society, and Politics. An Encyclopedia]. Ed. by I. Semenenko. Moscow: Ves MIR Publishers. 2017. P. 354-358. (In Russ.)

Semenenko I.S., Lapkin V.V., Pantin V.I. Classifying Ethnic Conflicts: Challenges for Political Theory and Methodology. – Polis. Political Studies. 2016. No. 6. P. 69-94. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2016.06.06

Simvolicheskaya politika: Sbornik nauchnykh trudov. Vypusk 5: Politika identichnosti [Symbolic Policy: Collection of Scientific Papers. Issue 5: Identity Policy]. 2017. Moscow: INION RAS. 356 p. (In Russ.)

Smith A.D. Nationalism and Modernism. A Critical Survey of Recent Theories of Nations and Nationalism. (Russ. ed.: Smith A. Natsionalizm i modernizm. Kriticheskii obzor sovremennykh teorii natsii i natsionalizma. Moscow: Praxis. 2004. 464 p.)

The Nation: Real or Imagined? The Warwick Debates on Nationalism. – Nations and Nationalism. 1996. Vol. 2. No. 3. P. 358-388. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8219.1996.tb00001.x

The SAGE Handbook of Nations and Nationalism. Ed. by Delanty G., Kumar K. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. 2006. 577 p.

Tishkov V.A. Forget About the Nation (Post Nationalistic Understanding of Nationalism). – Voprosy filosofii. 1998. No. 9. P. 3-26. (In Russ.)

2016 Report on the State of Civil Society in the EU and Russia. 2017. Berlin: EU-Russia Civil Society Forum. URL: http://www.zdes.spbu.ru/assets/files/Report_on_the_state_of_civil_society_2016.pdf(accessed 07.08.2018).  

See also: