Nationalism and National Movements

Comparing the Past and the Present of Central and Eastern Europe

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7931201
AutoresMiroslav Hroch (autor correspondente)
Ano1996
Volume2
Fascículo1
Páginas35-44
Data de publicação1996-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoNations and Nationalism (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1345-5078 • E-ISSN: 1469-8129
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1354-5078.1996.00035.x
OpenAlexW1978696574
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas17

This article compares the ‘new nationalism’ in post‐communist countries since the 1980s with the ‘classical’ national movements o the nineteenth century. Looking for analogies and differences between these two processes, it seeks to achieve a better understanding and more profound interpretation of contemporary ‘nationalism’. Most important analogies are: both national movements emerged as a result of (and as an answer to) the crisis and disintegration of an old regime and its value system; in both cases we observe a low level of political experience among the population, the stereotype of a personalised nation, and of a defensive position. Similarly both movements define their national border by both ethnic and historical borders: in both cases, the nationally relevant conflict of interests plays a decisive role. Among the differences are: the extremely high level of social communication in the twentieth‐century movements, combined with a ‘vacuum at the top’ (the need for new elites) and with deep economic depression. The ‘contemporary’ national movements fought for the political rights of undoubtedly pre‐existing nations (above all, for full independence), while the ‘classical’ ones fought for the concept of a nation‐to‐be, whose existence was not generally accepted. Nevertheless, in both cases, similar specifics of the nation‐forming process under conditions of a ‘small nation’ can be observed. The author does not view nationalism as a ‘disease’ or external force: but rather as an answer given by some members of the nation to new challenges and unexpected conflicts of interests, which could be interpreted as national ones

Communism · Independence (probability theory · Interpretation (philosophy · National identity · National Question · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Sociology · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Law