From the Origins to the Changes and Consequences of Nationalism

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Over the last 200 years nationalism a pervasive and highly consequential force in contemporary societies. Around the globe states legitimize their political projects by claiming to represent the interests of a bounded and unique national community, while ordinary people imagine belonging and experience social relations in national terms. Not surprisingly, scholars have developed sophisticated accounts of the rise of nationalism. The main thrust of the scholarship on nationalism has thus been concerned with theoretical arguments to explain the shift from a world in which nationalist ideologies and national attachments were unthinkable to a world in which nationalism has become a dominant form of political organization and collective identification.

But nationalism also has effects. The contents of state-sponsored national ideologies and the extent to which citizens subscribe to those official narratives can and do impact on a wide range of substantive outcomes, including political regimes, public goods provision, citizenship and immigration laws, different patterns of conflict, and political attitudes. But—with a few notable exceptions (e.g., Singh 2015; Tudor 2013), the consequences of nationalism have received significantly less scholarly attention. Similarly, nationalism changes. State leaders may adopt a new national ideology with different contents, and with different degrees of resonance (e.g., Wimmer 2002; vom Hau 2009; Bonikowski 2016). Yet again, compared to this rich scholarship on the emergence of nationalism, analysts lack a comparably sophisticated set of concepts and theoretical arguments to understand why states change their national ideologies, and why only some succeed in their efforts to inculcate these new ideological contents.

In response, this panel seeks to create a new interdisciplinary dialogue between different strands of scholarship around what we know and do not know about the changes and consequences of nationalism. In fact, our aim is to instigate a new research agenda that brings into conversation students of state formation and nation-building at the macro-level and scholars working on everyday forms of nationhood and national identifications at the micro-level.

Sub Unit

• Division 12: Comparative Politics of Developing Countries

Individual Presentations

• Transformations of Nationalism in Comparative Perspective - Matthias vom Hau, Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals

• Three Models of Nation-Building and State Policies toward Ethnic Diversity - Sener Akturk, Koç University

• Team and Nation: How Sports Games Affect National Identification - Yang-Yang Zhou, University of British Columbia; Leah R Rosenzweig, Stanford University

• How Inclusive Nationalism Promotes Freedom: Religious Diversity and State Institutions - Prerna Singh, Brown University; Daniel Joseph Schulte

Chair

• Matthias vom Hau Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals

Discussants

• Ashutosh Varshney Brown University

• Andreas Wimmer Columbia University