Political Ideologies by Andrew Heywood;

Author:Andrew Heywood; [Heywood;, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781350928800
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: 2022-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

THE FUTURE OF NATIONALISM

Probably no political ideology has featured in the obituary columns of academic journals as frequently as nationalism. It is no surprise, therefore, that nationalism has often been portrayed as a beleaguered ideology, beset by both internal pressures and external threats. Internally, modern nations are subject to centrifugal pressures, generated by an upsurge in ethnic, regional and multicultural politics. This heightened concern with ethnicity and culture may, indeed, reflect the fact that, in the context of economic and cultural globalization, nations are no longer able to provide a collective identity or sense of social belonging. Given that all modern nations embody a measure of cultural diversity, the politics of ethnic assertiveness cannot but challenge the principle of the nation. Especially in the closing decades of twentieth century, this led some to suggest that nationalism was in the process of being replaced by multiculturalism. Unlike nations, ethnic, regional and cultural groups are not viable political entities in their own right, and have thus sometimes looked to forms of federal governance to provide an alternative to political nationalism.

External threats to nationalism take a variety of forms. First, advances in the technology of warfare, and especially the advent of the nuclear age, have brought about demands that world peace be policed by intergovernmental and supranational bodies. This led to the creation of the League of Nations and, later, the United Nations. Second, economic life has been progressively globalized. Markets are now world markets, businesses have increasingly become transnational corporations, and capital moves around the globe in the blink of an eye. Is there a future for nationalism in a world in which no national government controls its economic destiny? Third, the nation may be the enemy of the natural environment and a threat to the global ecological balance. Nations are primarily concerned with their own strategic and economic interests, and pay little attention to the ecological consequences of their actions. The folly of this was demonstrated in the Ukraine in 1986 by the Chernobyl nuclear accident, which released a wave of nuclear radiation across Northern Europe that will cause an estimated 4,000 cancer-related deaths over 50 years in Europe.

And yet, nationalism has consistently defied its obituary notices. Each pronouncement that politics has effectively evolved beyond nationalism is quickly followed by evidence of its revival. One of the sources of nationalism’s resilience is surely its chameleon-like capacity to assume whatever ideological identity is needed in any set of circumstances. Nationalism has thus been used, for example, to establish democratic rule and to bolster dictatorial rule, to spark national liberation and to promote expansionism and war, to counter, as well as forge alliances with, globalization, and to consolidate liberalism and to fuel populism. Nevertheless, nationalism has – and is likely to continue to have – a strong and particular appeal to the isolated and powerless, for whom it offers the prospect of security, self-respect and pride. Not only does nationalism create a heightened sense of socio-cultural belonging but, in breeding from a clear

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