National Identity and its Consequences in Comparative Perspective

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

We live in a world of nation-states whose boundaries are legitimized by the shared identities of their populations. But why are some national identities more cohesive than others? This panel brings together four papers that tackle different aspects of national identity formation and its consequences, both in comparative context and in cases ranging from Southeast Asia to North Africa and Western Europe. Two papers locate the origins of identification with the nation in engagement with and receiving benefits from national institutions. In the first, land rights are the relevant institution. This paper leverages spatial and temporal variation in the Philippines to analyze how the granting of communal land titles to indigenous communities increases indigenous self-identification with the state. Meanwhile, the second paper turns to state infrastructural power. Focusing on Morocco and Tunisia, this paper examines the political origins of discrepancies in infrastructural power, and their consequences for national identity formation. Two further papers are more concerned with the consequences of national identity, in particular relative inclusivity and relative trust in elites. In one paper, the authors develop a new dataset that contrasts the different levels of inclusiveness of diverse nations and nationalisms. In contrast, the fourth and final paper focuses on the trust effects of national identity, drawing on original surveys conducted in Spain and the United Kingdom to demonstrate that the mobilization of sub-state identity is most strongly associated with greater trust in elites with a shared identity. Across a wide range of geographic contexts and relying on a diverse array of methodological approaches, these four papers offer new perspectives on eternally engaging questions regarding the origins and consequences of national identity.

Sub Unit

• Division 11: Comparative Politics

Individual Presentations

• Inclusive Nations and Nationalism - Prerna Singh, Brown University; Cyril Bennouna

• Indigenous Autonomy and National Identity, and State Power in the Philippines - Nina McMurry, WZB Berlin Social Science Center

• Infrastructural Power and National Identity in Morocco and Tunisia - Gabriel Koehler-Derrick, Brown University

• Sub-state Nationalism and Trust in Elites in Spain and the United Kingdom - Elissa Berwick, McGill University

Chair

• Matthew J Reichert Harvard University

Discussant

• Andreas Wimmer Columbia University