NATIONALISM

Is Nationalism a progressive or a conservative force?



Table of Contents

Introduction2

Discussion2

Definition2

Main Argument4

Historical development of Civic and Ethnical Nationalism4

Is nationalism an Ideology?5

Fascism7

Progressive Ideology8

Liberalism and Socialism9

Comparison of Liberalism, Conservatism and Fascism in light of Nationalism10

Conclusion10

Is nationalism a progressive force?10

Is Nationalism a progressive or a conservative force?

Introduction

Since the early civilizations people have constantly fought each other for the sake of protecting and establishing their personal identity, many battle and wars have been fought for this very reason that people want to maintain and establish their national identity. People have throughout history made some form of group based on some key factor that strictly distinguished them from the others. The earliest written records of people forming large groups are found from the Sumerian Civilization somewhere around the 2500 BCE. This concept of when people care about their national identity is used to describe Nationalism. Another concept of nationalism is when people from a nation strive for self determination (Grosby, 1998, p.5). We consider nationalism as progressive force and we will be reviewing the concept in light of liberalism, conservatism and fascism.

Discussion

Definition

In order to identify if nationalism is a conservative or progressive force, there is a need to elaborate on nationalism and how it affects people. Nationalism is a term that can be used to show the sentiment of patriotism within the individuals and groups within a nation. The ancient principle of nationalism focussed on the aboriginal phenomenon that was used to describe mankind's natural instinct to form groups with people related by blood. With time this principle evolved into a more modernistic principle that refers towards the national structural condition of a society. The need for such a principle arose from the minorities, ethnic, cultural and religious groups, within nations who were unsatisfied with the existing traditions of the nation these principles that separate groups of people from each other lead many people to consider nationalism as an ideology. An ideology is a set of ideas that formulate a target, goals and expectations. Ideologies evoke strong emotional reactions amongst people. Ideologies are responsible for framing out the political and social world for us. Ideologies are usually imposed by dominating groups to be observed by the others, ideologies are the basis of economic and political theory (Freeden, 1998). Before going further it is necessary to highlight the ideology is not an intellectual phenomenon, people do tend to use it in an emotional context, though ideologies are an outcry which relates the problems of the people in the society as a whole. The term ideology had been coined by the French philosopher Antoine Destutt de Tracy, who gave this idea after the French revolution, he believed that the science of ideas can be evolved into a verifiable basis from which the science of ideas would emerge .Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels extending this principle though they gave it a very different approach. Nationalism has two broad categories civic and Ethnic Nationalism.

Civic Nationalism can be simply described as the distinct nationhood formed by the citizens of a ...