Transformation of Nationalism in the Longue Duree: Towards a Dialectical Conceptualization

• In Event: 398 - Section on Marxist Sociology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 07. Historical-Comparative Analysis

Abstract

This paper provides a new conceptual and theoretical framework to dissipate some of the fog surrounding the terms "nation" and "nationalism", to explain the dynamics behind their evolving and highly fluid nature and to discuss the persistence of nationalism in the longue durée. Our framework reconceptualizes nationalist movements from a historical-materialist perspective in order to reveal some of the key contradictions that are embedded in these movements. Although our analysis is inspired by the methodological tools and methods of inquiry provided by Marxist scholars, we argue that dynamics of nationalism cannot be reduced to dynamics of capitalism. Capitalism and nationalism have interrelated but distinct logics that cannot be deduced from each other. Yet methodological tools and methods of inquiry Marxist analysts use to analyze contradictions of capitalism is very useful for explaining dynamics of nationalism. Parallel to these observations, this paper distinguishes "state-seeking nationalism" from "state-led nationalism" and explains the transformation of nationalism by examining the unfolding of the struggle between these two of nationalism in the longue durée. Our historical examination of this struggle from the beginning of the Genoese-Iberian systemic cycle of accumulation to the contemporary phase of the US systemic-cycle brings light to the how class composition and the predominant forms taken by the "nation" have changed from one world hegemony (systemic cycle of accumulation) to the next, state-building strategies fluctuated over time and space between the use of "force" and the use of "consent", and the ways in which state-building strategies themselves have evolved.

Author

• Sahan Savas Karatasli, Johns Hopkins University