D

SociologyStudyISSN21595526
July2013,Volume3,Number7,523530

DAVID

PUBLISHING

ProsandConsofNationalism
saErbaa
Abstract
This paper considers the debate that has developed in studies of pros and cons of nationalism. Nationalism deals with
identificationofanation,group,orcountry.Itisbelievedorviewedwithinamulticulturalstate.Nationalismcanbedefined
as national pride or patriotism. This is not a new idea, it has been for centuries, but the concept has changed. In general,
nationalismis describedmorenegativeconceptsasopposedtomorepositiveones.Nowadaysnationalismislinkedeither
directlyorimplicitlytoracism.Nationalismplaysagreatroleinworldpoliticstoday.Thereisalsoanothernegativeargument
thatcanincludethebeliefthatonestateissuperiortoalloftheotherstates.Thispaperbeginsbydefiningtheprosandcons
ofnationandnationalism.Thetopicofprosandconsofnationalismcreatesoneofthemostimportantissuesintheworld
today, and the issue promises to continue to the next century. People should be acknowledged in order to develop and
increasetheirawarenessandunderstandingofnationalism.Thisstudyalsoexaminestheimportanceandunimportanceof
nationalisminacountry.Thepaperusesquantitativemethodwithsurveyquestionnaire.Thestructuredquestionnairehas
beenusedtocollectdataandaskedteachersandstudents.Thepaperusescontentanalysisinthispartwithintheframework
of the qualitative method. The respondents have quite diverse backgrounds which is very important to have a wider
perspective.Theresultsofthis studyshowthattherehavebeendiverseviewsregardingthetermnationalism.Ithasbeen
foundoutthattheteachersandstudentshavenotbeenquitecomfortableandpositiveregardingthenationalism.
Keywords
Nation,nationalism,state,identity,culture

Nations and nationalisms are playing a major role in

world politics today. Sometimes they are considered
as conflict body parts of the world politics. For
example, the crises in the Middle East between Israel
and Palestine and also in the other parts of the world
show that nationalism is on the decline.
The shape of nations and the character of the
movements, which build them in the high age of
nationalism, go on to have deep and lasting results on
the contemporary world. Nationalism cannot be
completely separated from ethnicity. So ethnic
differences and inequalities can create nationalist
movements which would seek political autonomy.
Nationalism and national identity usually emerge from
the political, economic, technological, and religious

perception, as it has been mentioned, the ethnic

differences and inequalities. Some people can see
nationalism well and some people can see nationalism
bad. It depends on the peoples knowledge that how
much they know about nationalism. In general
nationalism gives people a sense of pride for their
country and this pride encourages and motivates the
people and they try to do their best for their countries.
Nationalism depends on people how they want to see

aEuropeanUniversityofTirana,Albania

CorrespondentAuthor:
sa Erba, Turgut Ozal College, Rruga Bernardin Palja,
Ndertesa15,Hyrja1NjesiaBashkiakeNr.6Tirana,Albania
Email:isaerbas@gmail.com

524
it and which part they want to look at.

BACKGROUNDOFNATIONALISM
Nation is one of the most discussed concepts in
modern social and political thoughts.
According to Wilson (2001: 2): Its precise
character has been subjected to a wide variety of
interpretations, with language, ethnicity, geography,
religion, and shared experience all having been cited
as fundamental determinants.
Anderson (2006: 157) claimed that since the end
of the eighteenth century nationalism has undergone a
process of modulation and adaptation, according to
different eras, political regimes, economies and social
structures. It is very important how nationalism is
understood and thought. Nationalism is the potential
basis of popular legitimacy or expression of support
for state power (Mark 2003: 6). Nationalism is not
only a political movement or principle for nationalists,
what is at stake is not only power but identity (Mondal
2003: 19).
Hobsbawm (1992: 37-38) claimed that there were
three criteria to become a nation: (1) its historic
assosiation with a current state; (2) the existence of a
long esteblished cultural elite, possessing a national
written literary and administrative vernacular; and (3)
a proven capacity of conquest.
It is very important to find out what the authors
have written and argued about nations and nationalism.
Mondal (2003: 15) argued that modernity was
essential to contemporary discussions of nations and
even those who argued that the core features of
nations predated modernity itself. The cultural
community is the basis of the nation which existed
before the cultural community became a nation and it
concedes that it was the advent of modernity that
radically transformed those features into what we
would now recognize as nations. Mondal (2003: 17)
further continued stating that as a result nations can be
seen to be a product of nationalist ideology but not a

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pre-existing and objective cultural category of a state.
There is a difference between a nation and an ethnic
group. A nation from an ethnic group or any other
collectivity has to be the nations self-derived desire to
achieve political sovereignty within a recognized
territory (Dawisha 2003: 8).
It is stated that Identity is not a fact of society; it
is a process of negotiation among people and interest
groups. Identity describes the society and society is
constituted by identity (McSweeney 2004: 73-74).
The role of identity in negotiating the new
international order would be fully justified (Kupchan
2001: 39). Identity and nationl interests cannot be
seperated. Wheeler (2008: 17) claimed that identity
led to particular conceptions of the national interest.
According to Asano (2005: 34): the concept of
identity, whether it is of an ethnic or a religious
community, on the other hand, loaded with emotion
and spoken of in terms of material objects and
manners of life. Agote (2006) argued that
nationalism, among other things, connoted a species
of identity and, in the psychological sense of the term,
denoted self-definition. It is stated that any identity is
a set of ideas, a symbolic construct. It is a particularly
powerful construct, so it defines a persons position in
his/her social world. It carries within itself
expectations of the person and of people from
different classes within that individuals social
settings, and thus orients his/her actions (Agote 2006:
22).
Guelke (2010: 28) claimd:
The ideologies of both the MAS and the MIP include all
the elements typical of nationalism: humankind is divided
naturally into nations; each nation is internally homogeneous,
with an identity defined by differential ethnic traits that
differentiates it from other nations; a persons freedom and
authentic existence depend on his or her identification with a
nation; loyalty to ones nation takes priority over loyalties to
class or other groups; a nation is only free to develop if it
controls its own sovereign, independent state; the state
should serve the interests of the nation, its language and its
culture; the world as a whole will only be free and at peace

Erba
when all nations are free and independent.

For many years, scholars are interested in

nationalism: They have debated and discussed the
most appropriate manner to approach nationalism, and
it is still quarreled over what motivates ordinary
citizens to take risks and engage in collective action
(Barreto 2009: 4). For this reason, nationalism is a
tool that motivates people.

METHODOFTHESTUDY
This study has two parts. The first part is about
general information of nationalism. This information
has been taken from secondary sources. The sources
have been treated documents as a source of the study.
The second part of the study is an empirical case
study. The data has been collected from the interviews
that have been conducted in Albania.

THEPERCEPTIONANDUNDERSTANDING
OFNATION
Dawisha (2003: 13) defined nation as a human
solidarity, whose members believed that they formed a
coherent cultural whole, and who manifested a strong
desire for political separateness and sovereignty.
Nations are very important for states. By the help of
nations, states can strengthen its power and develop its
domestic and foreign policies. Culturalists define
nation as a cultural community (Mondal 2003: 15).
Mondal (2003: 16) also underlined the importance of
nation by arguing that politics is important, it is only
because it is the expression of a pre-existing nation;
the nation exists objectively regardless of whether it
is organized politically.
According to Agote (2006: 45):
The nation is an idea of community (mystically shared
by all citizens) segregated by the state. The central functions
of this idea are: (1) the production of society in proportion to
the state; (2) the oversight of primitive foundational violence

525
(all states emerge out of civil wars); and (3) the cancellation
of essential relationships of sociopolitical meaning of
differential territories whose unification forms the state
territory.

Nationalists typically allege that nations have been

existent for hundreds, usually thousands of years
though more often than not they are claimed to have
been idle, or sleeping since some mythical golden
age. Nevzat (2005: 18) further claimed that the
nation has continuously existed since ancient times,
but without national consciousness. Nation helps
people understand identity and national identity. Prior
to nationalisim identity, national identity was
duscussed. So each member of nation should do
something for his/her country instead of waiting
his/her country to do something for them.

IDENTITYANDNATIONALIDENTITY
Cultures are also important for identity because
cultures shape individual identity (Smits 2005: 12).
Smits (2005: 5) went further claiming that identity
was shaped by national character as well as class
and social position. McSweeney (2004: 162) claimed
that people lived in a culture of fluid identities.
McSweeney (2004: 165) went further claiming that
identity was a social act as well as a structure of
meaning. Notions of identity are related to belonging
to a social group (May 2004: 8). Identity politics have
given a sharper and often destructive twist to struggles
for cultural recognition (Loescher 2011: 99).
According to Katzenstein (2009: 138), identity
was that people often came to identify with a group of
others because people shared common interests. An
identity acts as a cultural frame that tells people who
they are and how they ought to act. For example,
social group requires being able to distinguish itself
from others in ways that give it a relatively positive
social identity (May 2004: 26). Yurdusev (2003: 50)
stated that identity came from its being with others,
not just from others. Another author described

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identity as a central need of individuals but a need
that can be met without conflict. That identity often
seems a source of conflict is misleading. He
continued claiming that it was a use of state power to
buttress an identity that created conflict (Hilkermeier
2004: 65).
Barnett (1998: 47) argued:
Identities, in short, are not only personal or
psychological, but are social, defined by the actors
interaction with and relationship to others; therefore, all
political identities are contingent, dependent on the actors
interaction with others and place within an institutional
context. It is mainly a social identity that generates a positive
identification between peoples of members states.

Katzenstein (2009: 135-136) described national

identity:
As one form of collective identity. National identity
could be a source of conflict for groups in a society who did
not think of themselves as belonging to the nation and, if the
patterns of interaction became conflict, could result in some
groups deciding to form a new or alternative nation.

National traditions and beliefs about national

identity were fundamental at the inception of foreign
aid in the 1950s (Veen 2011: 108). Veen (2011: 28)
went further:
National identity can be conceptualized as a basic
worldview, combined with ideas about the type of national
image a nation aspires to, as well as a sense of the values
represented by the nation. The intermediate category of ideas,
general attitudes and frames connects the core values of
national identity to the causal ideas that shape policy
choices.

Geppert (2011: 347) also claimed that the process

of national identity construction cannot be detached
from the socio-political setting in which it took place.
The importance of national identity is never
decreasing (Barnett 1998: 91). The process of national
identity construction is closely linked to power
(Geppert 2011: 350). McSweeney (2004: 88) stated

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that identity can also be an instrument or weapon in
the security policies of others as, for instance, in the
stimulation of ethnic unrest for the purpose of
destabilizing a foreign government, or in the
instrumentality of national identity in the interests of
the state. For this reason, national identity is a
significant and essential element of the organizational
actors sense making processes (Geppert 2011: 371).
According to Yurdusev (2003: 140), national identity
has become the major social identification.
Wheeler underlined the importance of identity.
According to him, identity led to special conceptions
of the national interest: what the country cares about
and what aspects of its collective self as a result of
national interests the polity attempts to achieve
through global politics (Wheeler 2008: 153).
National identity is a context-bound resource and
some contexts are more fertile in providing various
discourses around national identity than others.
(Geppert 2011: 375). Finally, the argument revolved
around national identity, the definition of national
interest, and the kind of political, economic, and social
systems that Turkey should adopt. In the course of
these arguments, basic decisions regarding Turkeys
foreign policy (defense and national security) became
inextricably intertwined with the national identity of
Turkey (Bozdaglioglu 2003: 7).

PROSANDCONSOFNATIONALISM
Firstly, it is very important to know and understand
what nationalism means. While its agenda is justified
on an ethnic basis, ultimately, nationalism is a
political ideology. Nationalism is a phenomenon that
emerged in the late eighteenth century (Barreto 2009:
13). Nationalism was instead the result of social
processes that forged solidarity on the basis of
networks of shared communication or interests (Mark
2003: 15). Nationalism first emerged in England,
where it was ushered in by Protestantism but was then
quickly replaced by the consciousness of ones dignity

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as an individual (Mark 2003: 13). When the
nationalism first emerged, the aim of that was to help
to assess such arguments about the role of language
and communication (Mark 2003: 15). According to
Mondal (2003: 22), nationalism was a form of cultural
politics. Mondal (2003: 29) went further:
Nationalism does not seek to put a political border
around an already unified culture; rather, it seeks to
unify a disparity of cultures within a certain delimited
boundary. Nationalism is linked to the construction
and reproduction of the national identities of many
people (Wilson 2001: 1). Bashford (2004: 115)
described nationalism as a modern project which
united the complex emergence of political economy
and with the development of liberal democracy and
concepts of citizenship.
Nation and nationality is very important for each
state and nation. Gallner (1983: 6) emphized that a
man must have a nationality as he must have a nose
and two ears; a deficiency in any of these particulars is
not inconceivable and does from time to time occur,
but only as a result of some disaster, and it is itself a
disaster of a kind.
Nationalism historically implies the politicization
of collective identity when one considers that political
power is the expression of a political community
termed the nation. In a territorial state, only one power,
and, therefore, one depository nation of it, can exist
within the borders (Agote 2006: 47).
Nationalism is especially collective sentiment and
it is related discourse to become a historical force
which refers to a state as an existing structure or
potential object of engagement (Mark 2003: 6). Mark
(2003: 32) also continued arguing that nationalism
demarcated against foreign enemies was reinforced by
depriving rights, property, or residency to heretical
traitors from within, aggravating the international
tensions associated with the rise of nation-states. One
of the main goals of nationalist ideology is to unite
people in their struggle for self-determination
(Pinkney 1976: 16). Like ethnicity, nationalism

527
adheres to the belief that community members are
linked by presumed ancestral bonds (Barreto 2009:
14).
The 9/11, 2001 could never be forgotten. It was
not only the attack on the USA. It was on all the
nations. While nationalism has positive sides to
nationalists by strengthening its nations, at the same
time it encourages patriotism. Nationalism becomes
stronger and diverse if it is used properly through
economy, or politics. Nationalism motivates people to
work hard for what they value and this makes people
unite as one to accomplish this.
There are various types of nationalism such as:
cultural nationalism, economic nationalism, religious
nationalism, political nationalism, educational
nationalism, ethno nationalism, etc. Apart from the
mentioned nationalisms, there are also other
nationalisms, such as: Arab nationalism, Yugoslav
nationalism, etc. The most important nationalism is
cultural nationalism.
Mondal (2003: 18) argued:
Everything of value is associated with the cultural
nationalists, whilst the political aim is dismissed with a short
phrase; cultural nationalism is good and integral to the
community whilst its political counterpart is exterior to it,
almost superfluous, and is associated with modernization
which in turn is characterized as exogenous, as opposed to
the indigenous community.

Hsiau (2000: 14) also argued:

The central concept of cultural nationalism is that the
public life of the nation should express or be penetrated by
its unique culture, however defined. When cultural
nationalism, like political nationalism, claims an
autonomous state, its goal is more than that. Whether it is
stated or implied, the ultimate object of cultural nationalism
is to create a new man by instilling a distinctive culture
into those who are regarded as members of the nation.

Cultural nationalism usually holds that Black

people throughout the world possess a distinct culture
and that before Black liberation can be achieved in the

Sociology Study 3(7)

528
United States, Black people must reassert their
cultural heritage, which is fundamentally different
from that of the larger society. Cultural nationalists
maintain that a cultural revolution in the Black
community is essential before Afro-Americans can
command the unity necessary to revolt effectively
against their oppressors (Pinkney 1976: 13). So the
ideology of Black nationalism is widely spread among
Americas Black community, and its effect has
influenced those who do not consider themselves
nationalists. Although nationalism was not an
important force in the world before the eighteenth
century. Consequently, regarding to the Black
nationalism, besides individual and collective levels,
recently it has been seen the increase of Black
nationalist organizations at the local, state, national,
and even the international levels.
Regarding the disadvantages of nationalism, the
phenomenon was commonly associated with the
horrors of ethnic cleansing, a term that originated in
the Balkans in the early 1990s. This gave
ethno-nationalism a bad name and also meant that it
tended to be linked with secession and the break-up of
states, as well as with political mobilization leading to
war. Ethno-nationalism also tended to be associated
with minorities dissatisfied with their place in existing
polity (Guelke 2010: 1). So racism became mixed
with ethnic nationalism at the beginning of the
nineteenth century (Motyl 2001: 435). Ethnicity, for
all its problems, provides a more fruitful basis for
explaining key elements of the distinctive shape and
character of nations and nationalisms (Smith 2009:
18). Smith (2009: 34) went further by arguing that
most nationalisms were driven by conflict.
Nationalism can lead to feelings of superiority, racism,
and instability. These feelings can cause conflicts
among states. Nationalism should not be linked to the
racism. If it is linked to the racism, there will be
conflict among nations. There are more nations than
states in the world. Any instability among nations can
cause conflicts and a war.

RESULTOFTHESTUDY
Many students and teachers were interviewed about
pros and cons of nationalism. According to the
interviews, the students and teachers stated that by
learning nationalism they can easily judge the pros
and cons of it. Nationalism is a good thing that
enables and motivates the people to work and study
for their countries they stated.
The results of this study show that there have been
different views respecting the term nationalism. It has
been found out that the teachers and students have
been quite comfortable and positive regarding the
nationalism. People gain experience and knowledge
through nationalism. By learning nationalism people
can distinguish the advantages and disadvantages of
nationalism they state.
People who have backgrounds and life experiences
of nationalism can see problems and find solutions to
it from a variety of perspectives.

DISCUSSIONOFTHERESULT
It is clearly seen that people discuss and talk about
nationalism everywhere. The research shows that the
young generation is interested in nationalism. People,
especially new generation, have to be taught the good
sides of nationalism.
During the research and interviews, it was found
out that students and teachers are aware of the
importance of nationalism. For the future stability and
peace, each state should provide people with
information about nationalism and should teach them
the postive sides of nationalism. When people are
aware of the positive nationalism, they can love and
be proud of their countries. When they love their
countries, they can work and die for the sake of their
countries.

CONCLUSIONS
Nationalism is considered as a good thing. It

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motivates and encourages people to work and act for
their countries. Of course people should avoid
ethnicity and racism. Nationalism gives people a sense
of pride, and also the purpose of living for their own
countries. Without a pride, love or a care about ones
country, the country cannot have much development
and progress. Even in a simple competition if there is
no nationalism, the team can hardly have a success.
Apart from it, it also enables democracy to work.
Nationalism keeps people and nations safe, although it
keeps people isolated and strange to the rest of the
world, but the people feel safe. It gives the soldiers
strength to fight for their countries, and gives young
generation reasons to become soldiers.
It cannot be denied the reality that governments do
not serve the people, but the people serve the
governments. Nationalism makes people work for
their governments. There are conflicts in some
countries and people are killed by the dictators. The
nationalism makes people be against the dictators. On
the other hand, some nationalist parties are trying to
ban things from other cultures. In some countries,
other nations are deported from those countries. It can
be stated that these are some examples of nationalist.
Many nationalists do not want to let people practice
what they used to do before. Most nationalists are
against foreign cultures in their own countries. In
these situations, conflicts cannot be avoided among
those nations. In order to live peacefully and
comfortably, people have to respect other nations and
their acts, and then there will not be any conflicts and
problems among nations.

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Bio
sa Erba, Ph.D. candidate, Faculty of Political Science and
International Relations, European University of Tirana; research
fields: international relations, nationalism, foreign policy.