National self-determination — every nation has the inherent right to govern itself and determine its own political future without external domination. Cultural preservation — the language, traditions, customs, and heritage of a nation must be actively protected and transmitted to future generations. National solidarity — citizens of a nation share a common bond that transcends class, religion, or personal interest, creating a duty of mutual support.

Political Ideologies

Nationalism

Q: Key Thinkers and Figures

Johann Gottfried Herder — an eighteenth-century German philosopher who argued that each nation (Volk) possesses a unique spirit expressed through its language and culture, making cultural diversity a natural feature of humanity. Giuseppe Mazzini — an Italian revolutionary whose vision of a Europe of free nations inspired the Risorgimento and influenced nationalist movements worldwide. Ernest Renan — French philosopher who, in his 1882 lecture "What is a Nation?", defined the nation as a "daily plebiscite," emphasizing shared will and collective memory over ethnicity.

Updated At: April 14, 2026

What is Nationalism?

Nationalism is a political and cultural ideology that holds that the nation — defined by shared language, history, ethnicity, or civic identity — is the primary unit of human community and the legitimate basis for political authority. It asserts that each nation has the right to self-governance, sovereignty, and the preservation of its distinct cultural identity. Nationalism has been a defining force in modern history, shaping the formation of states, inspiring liberation movements, and, in its extreme forms, fueling conflict.

Core Principles

National self-determination — every nation has the inherent right to govern itself and determine its own political future without external domination.
Cultural preservation — the language, traditions, customs, and heritage of a nation must be actively protected and transmitted to future generations.
National solidarity — citizens of a nation share a common bond that transcends class, religion, or personal interest, creating a duty of mutual support.
Sovereignty — the nation-state is the supreme political unit, and its borders and laws must be respected by other nations.
National identity — a shared sense of belonging and collective memory forms the psychological and moral backbone of political life.
Civic or ethnic cohesion — depending on the variant, nationalism emphasizes either legal citizenship or ancestral heritage as the defining criterion of national membership.
Anti-imperialism — colonial or foreign domination over a people is illegitimate, and peoples under occupation have the right to resist and reclaim independence.

Historical Origins

Nationalism as a modern ideology emerged in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, catalyzed by the American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789. These upheavals introduced the idea that political legitimacy derives from "the people" rather than monarchs or dynasties, laying the groundwork for the nation as a sovereign political actor. The Romantic movement further deepened national consciousness by celebrating folk culture, vernacular languages, and historical myths that distinguished one people from another.

Throughout the nineteenth century, nationalism became the engine of major political transformations across Europe. The unification of Germany and Italy in the 1860s and 1870s were landmark achievements of nationalist movements, as were the independence struggles of Greece, Serbia, and other Balkan nations against Ottoman rule. By the early twentieth century, nationalism had spread globally, inspiring anti-colonial movements in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

The twentieth century demonstrated nationalism's dual character. On one side, it energized liberation movements that dismantled European empires and created dozens of new independent states. On the other, hypernationalism and ethnic chauvinism contributed to two world wars, the Holocaust, and numerous genocides. This ambivalence has made nationalism one of the most debated concepts in political theory.

Key Thinkers and Figures

Johann Gottfried Herder — an eighteenth-century German philosopher who argued that each nation (Volk) possesses a unique spirit expressed through its language and culture, making cultural diversity a natural feature of humanity.
Giuseppe Mazzini — an Italian revolutionary whose vision of a Europe of free nations inspired the Risorgimento and influenced nationalist movements worldwide.
Ernest Renan — French philosopher who, in his 1882 lecture "What is a Nation?", defined the nation as a "daily plebiscite," emphasizing shared will and collective memory over ethnicity.
Benedict Anderson — twentieth-century scholar who described nations as "imagined communities," arguing that print capitalism and mass literacy enabled people to conceive of belonging to a large, anonymous community.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk — founder of modern Turkey whose civic nationalist program transformed the remnants of the Ottoman Empire into a secular, modernizing nation-state.
Ho Chi Minh — Vietnamese leader who fused nationalism with socialism to lead a successful anti-colonial independence movement against French and American occupation.

Modern Manifestations

In contemporary politics, nationalism takes many forms. Civic nationalism underpins constitutional democracies that require allegiance to shared laws and values, as seen in France's republican model or the United States' creedal nationalism. Ethnic nationalism remains influential in Central and Eastern Europe, where minority rights, language policies, and border disputes continue to generate tension. In the post-Soviet space, national identity has been a central issue in conflicts from the Balkans to Ukraine to the South Caucasus.

The twenty-first century has seen a resurgence of populist nationalism in Western democracies, driven by anxieties over immigration, globalization, and cultural change. Parties such as the National Rally in France, Fidesz in Hungary, and analogous movements in the United States and United Kingdom have revived nationalist rhetoric while adapting it to contemporary electoral politics. Meanwhile, independence movements in Scotland, Catalonia, and Quebec continue to test the limits of multinational states.

Nationalism is closely intertwined with conservatism, as both ideologies emphasize the continuity of inherited institutions, values, and community ties. However, conservatism tends to focus on preserving social hierarchy and tradition within an existing order, while nationalism prioritizes the collective identity of the nation as such. In its more extreme, anti-democratic forms, nationalism can shade into authoritarian right-wing politics, where the nation becomes a justification for suppressing dissent and minority rights. Nationalism also overlaps with statism when national power is channeled through a strong centralized government, though not all nationalists are statists — some advocate for decentralized or even anarchist forms of national community.

Criticism

Nationalism has been criticized from multiple directions. Liberals and cosmopolitans argue that privileging national identity over universal human rights leads to discrimination against minorities and hostility toward immigrants. Marxists contend that nationalism serves ruling-class interests by diverting working-class solidarity along ethnic lines. Postcolonial scholars point out that many nationalist movements, once in power, replicated the exclusionary and authoritarian practices of the empires they replaced. Critics also note that the very concept of a homogeneous "nation" is often a constructed myth that erases internal diversity and justifies assimilation or expulsion of those deemed outsiders.