Therefore, nationalism and democracy are regarded as opposed, rather than linked, phenomena. In this text, larry diamond and marc plattner bring together a group of contributors to examine the tensions between new hopes for democratic reform and the ancient rivalries that threaten to. Ethnic conflict constitutes a major challenge to international peace and security. This course scrutinises the connection of nationalism and democracy.
In the course of the transition towards democracy, ethnic nationalism often appears as a sideproduct, leading to civic conflicts andor ethnocracies, rather than democracy. The first part of nationalism and ethnic conflict addresses the roots of nationalist and ethnic wars, focusing in particular on the conflicts in the former yugoslavia, the former soviet union, and kashmir. Other factors include unstable transitions to democracy and national leaders who profit from stirring ethnic conflict. The central theme of ethnic nationalists is that nations are defined by a shared heritage, which usually includes a common language, a common faith, and a. Viewing the nation as an organic entity, ethnic nationalism normally seeks to establish ethnically homogeneous states. It argues that a focus on dignity, selfrespect, and recognition, rather than a straightforward notion of selfinterest, is a better prism for understanding ethnic. Where the ethnic and political units are not congruent, ethnic nationalism often leads to either forceful assimilation or separatist movements.
What challenges does the resurgence of ethnic nationalism in some african countries pose for democratisation. The balkans, chechnya, ukraine, india, sri lanka, iraq, israel, the west bank and the gaza strip, and most of subsaharan africa, particularly the great lakes region, all bear vestiges of the danger of ethnic conflict. A social psychological perspective daniel druckman national research council the purpose of this essay is to introduce the reader to a social psycho logical perspective on the roots of nationalism. In the nationalism of exclusion, a dominant group within a. Many scholars have argued that the mere appearance of ethnic parties inevitably leads to a spiral of ethnic conflict and the collapse of incipient democracies. All journal articles featured in nationalism and ethnic politics vol 26 issue 1.
Wiley online library is migrating to a new platform powered by atypon, the leading provider of scholarly publishing platforms. Democratic nationalism and multiculutralism democracy. This was particularly visible in studies of nationalist and ethnic conflict in. State nationalism and justifications for state unity in spain and the uk. Democracy and ethnoreligious conflict in iraq 111 andreas wimmer is a professor of sociology at ucla. Ethnocommunal conflict and nationalism ashutosh varshney. Democratisation and conflict in ethnically divided societies.
Introduction1 upon initial consideration, the logics of nationalism and democracy seem to be contradictory. Let me make clear at the outset that i do not claim that it is democracies that routinely commit murderous cleansing though some do. Nationalism, ethnic conflict, and the quest for peace in cyprus book description. The new wiley online library will be migrated over the weekend of february 24 and 25 and will be live on february 26, 2018. Ethnic conflict, a form of conflict in which the objectives of at least one party are defined in ethnic terms, and the conflict, its antecedents, and possible solutions are perceived along ethnic lines.
In nationalism, ethnic conflict, and democracy larry diamond and marc plattner bring together a distinguished group of contributors to examine the tensions between new hopes for democratic reform and the ancient rivalries that threaten to extinguish them. In the second volume, anastasiou focuses on emergent postnationalist trends, their implications for peace, and recent attempts to reach mutually acceptable agreements between greek and turkish cypriots. New post totalitarian democracies in central and eastern europe and. Linking instrumentalist and primordialist theories of. Nationalism, once thought of as a historical phenomenon emerging along with capitalism and the nationstate in europe during the eighteenth century, has resurfaced in this century as part of the struggles for national liberation and selfdetermination in countries and regions of the third world dominated by colonialism and imperialism. His most recent book is nationalist exclusion and ethnic conflict cambridge. Nationalism and ethnic conflict in indonesia by jacques. Nationalism and ethnic identification in africa nationalism, as a subject of study, is generally defined in one of two ways. The challenge of ethnic conflict central intelligence agency. The nationalism of anticolonial movements was never comparable to the nationalism of hitler. Diversity, conflict and democracy political science, uc berkeley. How should we understand phenomena such as nationalism, federalism, multiculturalism and separatism. Civic nationalism respects individual rights, tolerance and diversity.
Rather, what haunts us is the tension between liberal principles and democracy. Russia has desperately tried to hold on to influence in some of the states e. This article seeks to answer these questions by focusing on the nationalism of resistance. We find that civic nationalism creates better conditions for democracy that ethnic nationalism. This was particularly visible in studies of nationalist and ethnic conflict in the developing world. Others regard ethnic and nation alist politics as transitory phenomena, the birth pains of the modern age that will be forgotten as soon as democracy and civil. Democracy does require that ethnically charged conflicts be solved.
Democracy today is synonymous with political goodness, while nationalismfirmly associated with ethnic conflict and ethnic cleansingis usually considered the embodiment of political evil. Nationalism, ethnic conflict and democracylarry diamond and marc f. Nationalism and ethnic conflict national endowment for. Plattner eds, nationalism, ethnic conflict, and democracy, baltimore. This final criterion differentiates ethnic conflict from other forms of struggle. Union is analogous, demonstrated most dramatically by the liberation struggle of the chechen people and the inter ethnic conflicts within the transcausian republics. In other words, civic nationalism and ethnic nationalism can be two sides of the same coin. Such representations reveal that the invention of the basque country as a uniform ethnic collective had much more to do with the internal contradictions of spanish national identity and later of basque identity than with the existence of a secular conflict between basques and spaniards.
In the first, nationalism is defined as the doctrine that state and cultural boundaries should be congruent. Approaches to the control of ethnic conflict in the postcold war world. Civic nationalism and ethnic nationalism only provide the nature of the route towards their goala successful practice of nationalism is one where the process is an interaction of both civic and ethnic nationalism, an intermeshing of the two. Nationalism, ethnic conflict, and rationality volume 1 issue 1 ashutosh varshney. In what ways or under what circumstances can ethnicity serve or subvert democracy. Ethnic nationalism, also known as ethnonationalism, is a form of nationalism wherein the nation is defined in terms of ethnicity. In latvia and estonia, ethnic con regional differences flict has taken the form of constitutional nationalism or ethnic democracy, as. Those values fit well with the democracy that indonesia embraces, but are incompatible with ethnic nationalism. A multidisciplinary and international team of social scientists will work with you in order to clarify and. The conflict is usually not about ethnic differences themselves but over. A new look at ethnicity and democratization princeton university. Ethnic nationalism vs civic nationalism opinion the.
Concepts and theories 25 of treaties and the coining of money is independent of the government of the associated states, and, on the other hand, state governments which in certain matters are, in their turn, independent of the general government. Behind this lie resurgent national isms and ethnic conflicts, xenophobia and chauvinism. An ethnic conflict is a conflict between two or more contending ethnic groups. This article tests this proposition by examining how ethnic parties affect protest and communal conflict across 82 countries and 2 ethniccommunal groups from 19852003. Nationalism, populism and ethnic conflict management in. Nationalism, ethnic conflict, and democracy book, 1994. Yet, the fact that ethnicity has been the factor common to the majority of the. We are accustomed to think of democracy as bringing nothing but good to the world. Do ethnic parties promote minority ethnic conflict. Several reasons are ascribed to this development, some of which are outlined below. Nationalism, in particular,remains the preeminent rhetoric for attempts to demarcate political communities, claim rights of selfdetermination and legitimate rule by reference to the people of a country.
To clarify the relationship between nationalism and democracy two variants of nationalism ethnic and civic nationalism are distinguished. Ukraine and kiev will probably be even more oriented toward the west and ukrainian nationalism will soar. Constitutional design, conflict management, and democracy, oxford university press, 2002. An overview by robin wright 157 political and economic factors such as global migration and competition for dwindling resources are responsible for an explosion of ethnic hatred and conflict. This is my most provocative thesis, which many are bound to fiercely reject. Nationalism, ethnic conflict and democracylarry diamond and. In fact, one could make the argument that democracy was always a central concern of the scholarship on nationalism and ethnic conflict. The threat posed by ethnic conflict in conclusion, simmering ethnic conflict threatens the current workings of democracy by bypassing democratic institutions, systems and procedures the continued existence of democracy especially if the conflic turns violent the workings of postconflict democracy are seriously. This article tests this proposition by examining how ethnic parties affect protest and communal conflict across 82 countries and 2 ethnic communal groups from 19852003. Nevertheless, nationalism today is often characterised as the enemy of liberal democracy.
Nationalism appears to be predicated upon a doctrine of exclusivity, whereas democracy seems to be based on an inclusivist one. Nationalism and liberal democracy geopolitical futures. What determines membership is who your ancestors were, nothing less and nothing more. Cambridge university press, 2002, and he is principal editor of the forthcoming volume facing ethnic conflicts. Democratization, political institutions, and ethnic conflict. Ethnic democracy the wiley blackwell encyclopedia of. While the source of the conflict may be political, social, economic or religious, the individuals in conflict must expressly fight for their ethnic groups position within society.