Effects of modernization on components of national identity in contemporary European states

Abstract

The article presents the results of an analysis of attitudes of population in seventeenEuropean countries on the importance of components of national identity - cultural, ascriptive and civic - based on the data collected in a survey (INTUNE project). The hypothesis that modernization processes influence the strengthening of the civic component as well as the weakening of ascriptive and cultural components is being checked. Differences in identity formation between countries with specific historical legacies (democratic tradition, dominant religious denomination, and ethnic composition) and structural characteristics (GDP per capita, level of urbanization, migration rate, and tertiary education attainment rate) is being analyzed, as well as the significance of different individual predictors (such as gender, age and university education). In addition to the confirmation of the basic hypothesis, the results suggest that the modernization effects of examined factors (economic, cultural and political) are visible only up to a certain level of development, whereupon they tend to decrease their influence. The strongest influence on the strength of civic components is recorded with an economic factor - GDP per capita. Although civic components proved to be dominant in shaping the national identities across the examined countries, the other two traits - ascriptive and cultural - do not disappear, testifying to the still existing hybrid nature of national identity.

Expression and structure of national identity of students of the Faculty of education in Užice measured by NAIT scale

“…У оквиру различитих истраживања o националним идентитету спроведеним на различитим узорцима студентске и адолесцентске популације (Beljanski, Šimonji Čermak, Karikova, 2018;Cheng & Szeto, 2019;Grozdanovska, 2016;Ranđelović & Kostić, 2011;Ranđelović, Minić, Ranđelović, 2021;Sakač, Štrangarić, Marković, 2017;Čorkalo & Kamenov, 1998Čorkalo & Kamenov, , 2003Štrangarić, 2014, 2017, као и на узорку одраслих испитаника (Lazić & Pešić, 2015;Ranđelović & Minić, 2011;Čorkalo & Kamenov, 2003) установљена су значајна сазнања о компонентама националног идентитета, с једне стране, али и о интензитету и диверзитету националног идентитета, с друге стране.…”

“…У истраживању спроведеном у 17 европских земаља (Lazić & Pešić, 2015) анализирани су ставови становништва о важности основних компоненти националног идентитета -културне, аскриптивне и цивилне. У овом истраживању потврђена је основна хипотеза да процеси модернизације јачају присуство цивилне компоненте и доприносе слабљењу аскриптивне и културне компоненте националног идентитета.…”

“…Within different studies of national identity conducted on various samples of student and adolescent population (Beljanski, Šimonji Čermak, Karikova, 2018;Cheng & Szeto, 2019;Grozdanovska, 2016;Ranđelović & Kostić, 2011;Ranđelović, Minić, Ranđelović, 2021;Sakač, Štrangarić, Marković, 2017;Čorkalo & Kamenov, 1998Čorkalo & Kamenov, , 2003Štrangarić, 2014, 2017, as well as on the sample of adult respondents (Lazić & Pešić, 2015;Ranđelović & Minić, 2011;Čorkalo & Kamenov, 2003), significant findings were made about the components of national identity, on the one hand, but also about the intensity and diversity of national identity, on the other hand.…”

“…In the research conducted in 17 European countries (Lazić & Pešić, 2015), the attitudes of the population were analyzed about the importance of basic components of national identity -cultural, ascriptive and civic. This research confirmed the basic hypothesis that modernization processes strengthened the presence of civic component and contributed to the weakening of the ascriptive and cultural component of national identity.…”