Unit 9 - Ideology

Thinking about the Nation State

• What is a state?

• What distinguishes it from other institutions, like the Boy Scouts?

Thinking about the Nation State

• What is a state?

• Max Weber – The institutions within a specified geographic territory which have a monopoly on the legitimate use of force.

• What does “legitimate” mean?

Thinking about the Nation State

• What is a Nation?

• What distinguishes one nation from another?

Thinking about the Nation State

• What is a Nation?• What distinguishes one nation from another?• Shared Characteristics

Diet Origin (land) Language

Race Perception Religion

Ethnicity Family pattern Culture

Dress Sense of space History

Together these traits make up a “nation.”

One is born into a nation, a sense of blood connection

Thinking about the Nation State

• Nations– Groups of people with shared characteristics

• States– Bounded institutions with monopoly on force.

• Nation states– States whose boundaries roughly correspond with the

location of the dominant nation

• Stateless nations– Nations that are not dominant in any given state.

• Is America a nation state?

Importance of Nationalism

• Powerful unifying ethos– Can provide sense of identity, belonging– Can motivate selfless sacrifice– The French demonstrated its power first

Patriotism – Love of one’s nation, a belief that one’s country is worthy of loyalty.

Chauvinism – Belief in the superiority of one’s nation over others.

Options to deal withNationalist Minorities

• Assimilation– US on its good days – 3 generation rule

• Autonomy– Quebec, US Indian Reservations, Kosovo

• Independence– East Timor, Former Yugoslav states, Eritrea

• Irredentism– Hong Kong, Macedonia, Kashmir

• Ethnic cleansing– Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq

• Genocide– Sudan, Rwanda

The problem of Ethnic/Religious War

• Why do communities that once coexisted slide into fratricidal violence?

• Why do others continue to get along despite identical differences?

The problem of Ethnic/Religious War

• Cleavages in society– All societies are

divided into have and have-nots

– Many societies do not have much movement from one class to another

Rich

Poor

The problem of Ethnic/Religious War

• Many societies are also divided by ethnic or religious cleavages

Greens

Tans

The problem of Ethnic/Religious War

• When these cleavages are cross-cutting, then the ethnic division is irrelevant to the power division

• These societies do not experience ethnic/religious conflict

•

Rich

Poor

Gre

ens

Tan

s

The problem of Ethnic/Religious War

• When these cleavages are reinforcing, then the ethnic division is highly relevant to the power division

• These societies do experience ethnic/religious conflict

Rich/Green

Poor/Tan