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Habib Ullah (21020619)

Comparative Politics

Dr. Ahmad Yunas Samad

What are the differences between civic and ethnic nationalism? Answer the question

theoretically and comparatively.

The 19th century conception of nationalism is broad in its defining nature as historically it

has used the cultural, political and economic wellbeing of a group of people over others. The

contemporary world face challenges in organizing a collective solidarity within their borders

where regionalism and cosmopolitanism appears to be the obvious threats. Then how can we

define nationality? What makes one nation different from another. The nation-state is defined as

the geo-political collusion of the nation and the state which served as basis to nationalist

revolutions. Nationalists function on the three principles of self-determination, organic society

and gemeinschaft. The American and French revolutions gave rise and promoted their collective

unity which was translated into political and economic interests. While in Europe, Napoleon

Bonaparte promoted French nationalism with his underlying ideas of “liberty, equality,

fraternity” with idealizing expansionism and Otto von Bismarck started his efforts of unifying

Germany in 1871. These events sparked debates and notions of national identity and racial

superiority which resulted in fascists regimes later in Europe. Nationalism has also been

prominent in the past few years when Donald Trump and Narendra Modi got elected where the

former is applying his ‘America First’ agenda while the latter is establishing ‘Hindutva’ in India.
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There are these notions of ‘civic nationalism’ and ‘ethnic nationalism’. Trade wars and

protectionist policies reflect the economic nationalism of countries as visible in case of United

States amending its foreign policy towards the rising China. The theory of civic nationalism is

defined as a person can belong to a nation based on his choice to live there. On the other

extreme, ethnic nationalism considers the blood, soil, history and culture of a person to be

regarded as of one nation. There are these notions of ‘civic nationalism’ and ‘ethnic nationalism’.

Ethnic nationalism is perceived as backward-looking and eastern type which mainly includes

Germany, Russia and India. Whilst civic nationalism is considered as rational and forward-

looking ideology associated with the west such as France. Edward Shils uses the term

‘Primordialism’ and argues that national identities were natural, ineffable and attributed to the

ties of blood. Many primordial theorists including Clifford Geertz does not perceive national

identity as a social construct but spiritual, mystical, unchangeable that has been present since the

beginning. Modernists theorists of national identity generally critique the primordialism.

Modernists argue that the national identity as idea have grown generally over the most recent

two centuries at the same time modern concepts like capitalism, industrialization, democracy and

urbanization.. Civic and ethnic nationalism will keep emerging in countries which will depend

upon their national interests resulting in the alteration of the citizenship laws and national

identities of the people of that country.

The definition of nationalism is constantly evolving and in order to attain a broad picture

of its conception, thorough analysis of the interpretation of different prominent authors is

necessary. Anthony D. Smith defines nationalism as “an ideological movement for attaining and

maintaining autonomy, unity and identity for a population which some of its members deem to

constitute an actual or potential ‘nation’” (Anthony Smith, Nationalism: Theory, Ideology,

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History, 2001, p.9). Smith believes that the ethnic and civic aspect of nationalism can co-exist

but most of the times one dominates the other. Smith believes that most of the modern states are

the result of their ethnic core values. He also believes that those states had pre-existing origins

before the definition of them as a ‘new nation’. On the contrary, Hans Kohn defines nationalism

as “Nationalism is a state of mind, in which the supreme loyalty of the individual is felt to be due

to the nation-state.” (Kohn 1965). Kohn relates ethnic nationalism to eastern Europe while civic

nationalism to western Europe and believes it to be the region where the ‘state of mind’ of

nationalism originated. The most prominent modernist civic nationalists include Ernst Gellner

and Benedict Anderson. For Gellner, modern nationalism is a distinct and clear result of the

western industrialization in the 19th century. The difference between the modern and premodern

world is that physical work in its pure form has disappeared and the term ‘manual labor’ has

transformed to managing and maintain a machine with a sophisticated control mechanism.

Technical industrial machinery requires a certain level of proficiency and thus ‘meritocracy’

developed. Gellner writes that “a modern society, in this respect, like a modern army, only more

so. It provides a very prolonged and fairly thorough training for all its recruits, insisting on

certain shared qualifications: literacy, numeracy, basic work habits and social skills…The

assumption that anyone who has completed his generic training common to the entire population

can be re-trained for most other jobs without too much difficulty’” (Gellner). Benedict Anderson

published his book “Imagined communities” in the same year of the “Nations and nationalism”

of Gellner in 1983. Anderson stresses upon the point that nation is a socially constricted concept

and even the smallest members of a nation will never get to know to all other members but

would themselves as to be the part of the same nation. Anderson believes that the idea of

continues national identity was perfect to replace a religious worldview that has been dominant
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in the medieval period. He argues that the printing press has been crucial in presenting the

nations as a continuous story where the collective mentality could be manipulated and controlled.

Anderson argues that the combination of capitalism and print media has created imagined

geographical network where the people in streets would read the same newspapers and would

know the same political stories resulting in creating an imagined community. Nationalism, both

civic and ethnic, is very particularistic in nature but at the same time it constitutes an ideology if

general application.

For comparative analysis of the analytical concepts civic and ethnic nationalism, we will

Germany and United Kingdom as practical examples. Since both the countries have different

histories and geographies but both have been dealt with the influx of immigrants in which have

shaped their citizenship laws and national identities. After WW2, Germany has been facing the

influx of immigrants and the number were in 80,000 in 1950s and increased to 1.5 million

between 1988 to 1995 (cite). In order to compensate somehow their previous government

actions, the article 16(2) of the Federal Constitution of 1949 states “No German may be

extradited to a foreign country. The politically persecuted shall enjoy the right of asylum” ("The

Basic Law of the FRG (23 May 1949) - CVCE Website"). This policy was civic in nature and

accommodated a lot of immigrants of the war, but social tensions and the racial outbreaks

increased in late 1990s. This led to the amendment of the Federal Constitution of the 1949. After

the new law of citizenship in 1999, the principle of Jus sanguinis was taken in consideration. It

stated that the people born in eastern Europe who can demonstrate their German ancestry will

have greater rights than the second or third generation of the people of other nationalities born n

German soil. The debates between the ethnic and civic nationalists has been sliding the German

immigrants polices along the spectrum. Violence was also spread through the fragmentation of
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the national identity after the unification of Germany against immigrants, asylum seekers etc.

These acts were mostly motivated by the Federal German Republic when it offered ‘ethnic

citizenship’ to Democratic German Republic for the greater purpose of unification in 1990.

Konrad Adenaur, the first chancellor of West Germany, he also played a vital role in promoting

the concept the Germany was a European instead of a national entity. Similarly, Jurgen

Habermas put forward the idea of constitutional patriotism which implied the form of national

identity having the characteristics of civic nationalism. This was however creating the notion of

universalistic principles of democracy and justice which might ignore the differing political

beliefs. Unlike United Kingdom, Germans expression of either patriotism or nationalism has

been hindered by their brutal past of holocaust and WW2. According to European union polls

“Public opinion polls taken in the 1950s by the allies showed a perhaps shocking reality: In 1945

in the US zone 53% of Germans thought Nazism was a good idea. In 1947 55% believed it to

have been a good idea despite the fact that this was following the Nurenberg trials. In the 1950s

over 50% of Germans believed Hitelr was the greatest statesman ever” ("Civic Ethnic

Nationalism"). ("Civic Ethnic Nationalism"). Despite of the trend moving towards the

multicultural Germany, ethnic nationalism is still considered an important concept to influence

national identity and citizenship laws. Although Germany s moving towards more civic

nationalism, there are still a huge proportion of elements promoting their ethnic values.

The British has a long imperial history, ruling directly or indirectly about half a billion

people who were treated like subject rather than citizens. The white supremist notion in early

Britain empire reflects the significance and implication of ethnic nationalists’ values. After

WW2, Britain has been open to immigrants in order to encompass post imperial people and to

build its economy again. The shift towards civic nationalism led to the redefinition of the British
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nationality. The conservative and ethnic nationalists saw this as a threat to the British people and

to its economy as it created competition for jobs in Britain. The Commonwealth immigration act

1962 and immigration act 1971 were passed to redefine immigration policies and limit

immigrant’s entry. The United Kingdom does not have any restrictions on dual citizenship like

Germany. By permitting double citizenship, the UK has supported multiculturalism. In any case,

this has likewise had the impact of making various residents who might not really observe any

devotion, other than for practical political reasons, to Britain. Non-citizens can take part in the

political activity in the United Kingdom. The citizens of European Union and Commonwealth

can vote which gave the possibility to the legal immigrants to maintain their civic/political

relationship with United Kingdom. Talking about how the British Empire have destroyed the

national identities of its colonies and the white man’s burden which created these refugee crisis,

Richard Drayton explains “We hear a lot about the rule of law, incorruptible government and

economic progress – the reality was tyranny, oppression, poverty and the unnecessary deaths of

countless millions of human beings.” (Drayton 2011). Despite the citizenship, the United

Kingdom is still very divided land. Scotland, Northern Ireland, wales and England define their

national identities in a very different manner. The civic nationality is preserved by their political

participation and legal rights but the regional identities of the Scottish, Irish and English are

deeply rooted in their ethno-cultural sphere. There are lot of ethnic minorities in the British Isles

and majority of them associate them in ethnic terms rather than being British. The English refers

themselves as ‘British’ in writings and public to show their hegemony on the rest of the British

Isles. Krishan Kumar writes that it “tells of the difficulty that most English people have in

distinguishing themselves, in a collective way, from the other inhabitants of the British Isles.”

(Crick 2003). Britishness was a non-national political identity of the inhabitants if the United
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Kingdom before the 1981 Nationality Act. The ethnic nationalists surge to put blood and heritage

in the definition Britishness points back to our thesis statement that the they have turned again to

ethnic nationalism to control the flow of immigrants. The current Prime minister, Boris Johnson

has also been struggling to withdraw Great Britain from the European Union until it got ratified

on 31st January 2020. The United Kingdom will face economic troubles while it will be fully in

control of its policies and legal apparatus.

Eric Hobsbawm argues in his Marxist reading on nationalism argues that national myths

are perpetuated by elites through repetition and continuity of the past which justifies itself

through its ability to conserve. It promotes the kind of mentality that ‘It has worked before so we

should keep doing that’ sort of mentality on the grassroot level. He exemplifies this by analyzing

the construction of the British in a gothic style even though it was built in the 19 th century to

imply it was a long standing and trusted institution. He argues that these sorts of authoritative

myths are embodied statues, education, public holidays etc. to give the impression of the long-

standing continuity. Hobsbawm being a Marxist, nationalism and national identity are inherently

linked to class for him. Rabindranath Tagore argues that “the process of its formation/invention

further makes it a potent site of power discourse; although it is meant to stand for a horizontal

comradeship, exploitation and inequality remain a daily occurrence in its body, and the nation

never speaks of the hopes and aspirations of its entire ''imagined community”” ("Tagore and

nationalism" 2013). He was much more wildly restricted to India appropriating the thought. He

believed, it would bargain India's history and culture, and make it a ''begger of the West"(cite).

His predictions have worked out as expected, despite the fact that India is currently politically

free, it is joining the fleeting trend of nationalism has thrown the shadow of western civilization

over it. The allocation of nationalist philosophy has eradicated the feeling of India's distinction as
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a general public equipped for remaining all alone; and the manufacturing of connections with the

West has permitted neo-colonialist controls to work over the nation both directly and indirectly,

spelling political and cultural doom for its people. Tagore took the view that “since nationalism

emerged in the post-religious laboratory of industrial-capitalism, it was only an 'organisation of

politics and commerce’ that brings 'harvests of wealth,' or 'a carnival of materialism,' by

spreading tentacles of greed, selfishness, power and prosperity, or churning up the baser instincts

of mankind, and sacrificing in the process ''the moral man, the complete man… to make room for

the political and the commercial man, the man of limited purpose''”("Tagore and nationalism"

2013).

In a nutshell, the terms national interest and national identity have common grounds with

capitalism in general. I agree with Gellner and Anderson on national identity and nationalism

being socially constructed to foster businesses and economic growth among geographical

spheres, initially through industries and now through economic zones. Capitalism took different

transitions in France and Great Britain form top to bottom while in rest of the Europe, a bottom-

up approach. Ethnic nationalists’ views have been dominant in most of the historical times and

even today Trump, Modi, and even Boris Johnson have adopted nationalistic approaches and

specifically ethnic nationalism. The justification of their policies and actions is just by providing

an abstract concept of Clifford Geertz and other primordial theorists, that pluralism or civic

nationality is just letting other people take advantage of our resources. When Germany realized

that it cannot take proper use of the Turks, Indians and other minorities living there, they turned

towards civic nationalistic citizenship laws and later made amendments. Similarly, United States

has been turning towards protectionist trade policies to minimize its interdependency from the

rising China. I think more specific and well-defined national identities lead to more simple and
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applicable policies which leads to more control. Contemporary governments are not fixed on

their policies and civic and ethnic nationalists regimes will keep appearing and disappearing

depending upon the overall agenda and national interest.

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