What Is Nationalism? Definition, Types and History

What nationalism means

Nationalism is one of the most powerful ideas in modern politics, and one of the hardest to pin down. It has driven independence movements, unified countries, broken up empires and fueled wars.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes nationalism as two linked things: the attitude that members of a nation have when they care about their national identity, and the actions they take to achieve or keep some form of political self-determination. In other words, nationalism is both a feeling and a program.

A widely quoted definition comes from the social theorist Ernest Gellner, who wrote in Nations and Nationalism (1983) that nationalism is "primarily a political principle, which holds that the political and the national unit should be congruent." Put simply: each nation should have its own state, and each state should be the home of one nation.

That leaves the hardest question open. What is a nation?

What is a nation?

A state is a political institution: a government with territory, laws and borders. A nation is a group of people who see themselves as a people. The two do not always match. Some states contain several nations, such as the United Kingdom with England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Some nations are spread across several states or have none of their own.

Thinkers have offered very different answers to what makes a nation:

• Shared culture. The German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, writing in the late eighteenth century, stressed language and folk culture as the soul of a people.
• Shared will. The French historian Ernest Renan argued in an 1882 lecture that a nation is a "daily plebiscite," held together by shared memories and a present wish to live together.
• Shared imagination. The political scientist Benedict Anderson called the nation an "imagined community" in his 1983 book of that name. Its members will never meet most of their fellow nationals, yet they feel a deep bond, made possible by things like print, newspapers and common schooling.

Ancient or modern?

This leads to a long academic debate. Modernists such as Gellner and Anderson argue that nations are largely products of the modern era, built by industrialization, mass literacy and the state. Primordialists and ethnosymbolists, such as Anthony D. Smith, argue that modern nations grew out of older ethnic and religious communities with deep roots. Most historians today take something from both sides.

Civic vs ethnic nationalism

The most common way to sort nationalisms is by how they define who belongs.

The ideology pages for nationalism and civic nationalism set out each tradition, and our side-by-side comparison of civic nationalism vs nationalism goes issue by issue.

Researchers stress that this split is a spectrum, not two boxes. The United States is often described as a civic nation, yet many Americans also tie national identity to language and custom. Pew Research Center's 2016 survey across 14 countries found that 70% of Americans said speaking English is very important to being truly American, while 32% said the same about being born in the country. Across the European countries surveyed, the median who said speaking the national language is very important was 77%.

Other types

• Liberal nationalism. Political theorists such as Yael Tamir and David Miller argue that national identity can support liberal values, because people are more willing to share and sacrifice for those they see as fellow members.
• Anti-colonial nationalism. Movements in Asia, Africa and Latin America used nationalism to demand independence from empires, often combined with socialist or liberal ideas.
• Economic nationalism. The view that trade and industrial policy should put national industries and jobs first.
• National conservatism. A modern current that pairs nationalism with traditional values and skepticism of global institutions. See national conservatism and national conservatism vs nationalism.

A short history of nationalism

Revolutions and the sovereign people

Before the late eighteenth century, most people in Europe were subjects of a monarch or members of a church or region more than citizens of a nation. The American Revolution and the French Revolution of 1789 changed that by placing sovereignty in the people. The French declared the nation the source of all authority, raised mass citizen armies and spread the idea across Europe.

Unification and independence

In the nineteenth century, nationalism powered the unification of Italy and of Germany, the latter under Otto von Bismarck. It inspired revolts against the Ottoman and Habsburg empires, and the 1848 revolutions across Europe combined national and liberal demands. In Latin America, Simón Bolívar led independence wars against Spanish rule, and José Martí later became the voice of Cuban independence. In this era nationalism was often seen as a liberal, even radical, cause.

Self-determination and world wars

Nationalist rivalry is widely seen as one of the causes of the First World War. At its end, Woodrow Wilson set out his Fourteen Points in January 1918, which called for borders drawn along lines of nationality in parts of Europe. The principle of national self-determination shaped the map that followed. In the 1920s and 1930s, extreme nationalism became a core part of fascism and Nazism; see what is fascism.

In Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk built a new republic on a modern Turkish national identity. In the United States, Theodore Roosevelt gave his 1910 "New Nationalism" speech, which used the word for a very different purpose: a stronger federal government to regulate big business in the national interest.

Decolonization

After 1945, nationalist movements helped end European empires. In India, Mahatma Gandhi led a mass campaign of nonviolent resistance, and Jawaharlal Nehru became the first prime minister of an independent India in 1947. Dozens of new states followed across Africa and Asia.

After the Cold War

The end of the Cold War brought new nation-states in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and also wars in the former Yugoslavia. Since the 2000s, debates over globalization, immigration and the European Union have revived nationalism as a political label, often alongside right populism. See what is populism.

Nationalism vs patriotism

People often contrast the two, though there is no single agreed line.

• Patriotism is usually described as love of one's country, its people and its institutions.
• Nationalism is usually described as a political doctrine about the nation's right to govern itself and about who belongs to it.

Some writers, such as George Orwell in his 1945 essay "Notes on Nationalism," treated patriotism as defensive and nationalism as a wish for power. Others argue that this distinction is mostly a way of calling one's own loyalty patriotism and someone else's nationalism.

The case for and against

In each side's own best terms:

The case for nationalism

Supporters argue that a shared national identity creates trust, which makes democracy, welfare states and shared sacrifice possible. People are more willing to pay taxes and accept election results when they see fellow citizens as part of the same community. National self-determination also lets people govern themselves rather than being ruled by distant empires or unaccountable international bodies. Liberal nationalists add that nations give individuals a cultural home and a sense of meaning.

The case against

Critics argue that nationalism draws a line between insiders and outsiders, and that this line can be used to exclude minorities, restrict immigrants or justify aggression against neighbors. They point to the role of extreme nationalism in the world wars and in ethnic cleansing. Cosmopolitans argue that moral concern should not stop at borders, and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that cosmopolitan thinkers see all human beings as members of a single community. Some economists also argue that economic nationalism raises prices and lowers growth.

Where many people end up

Many voters and thinkers hold a middle view: a sense of national belonging can be healthy and even necessary for democracy, but it should be inclusive and limited by universal rights. The argument is often less about whether nations matter than about how open they should be.

Find where you fit

You may lean nationalist if you believe national sovereignty, borders and shared culture should come before international cooperation. You may lean cosmopolitan if you think global problems and universal rights should come first. Most people mix both.

The 12 Axes Political Test measures where you stand on national identity, global vs protected trade and foreign policy, and the Political Values Test includes a diplomatic axis. For a quick start, try the Political Spectrum Quiz. You can also browse our list of political ideologies or read left vs right politics.