Authoritarian Populism and Atavistic Nationalism: 21ST-Century Challenges to Peacebuilding and Development

Chinese Nationalism: Insights and Opportunities for Comparative Studies

“…Moreover, assessing the content of these legitimation claims affords nationalism scholars an opportunity to revisit assumptions about the nature of nationalism under authoritarian states. Many discussions surrounding the nature of authoritarian nationalism emphasize its compatibility with exclusive or ethnically based conceptions of national identity that contrast to more civic and inclusive invocations of the nation employed by liberal democratic actors (Clements 2018; Tudor and Slater 2021). In China, however, the CCP’s pursuit of legitimation through rhetorical appeals to citizens that both urge them to resist external threats to limit China’s rise and to join in the building of a multi-ethnic and inclusive Chinese national identity ( zhonghua minzu yishi ) blur the lines between civic and ethnic nationalisms, as well as the lines between populism, patriotism, and nationalism 16 .…”