Reappraising Communism and Nationalism

Mevius, Martin

doi:10.4324/9781315875002-1

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Nationalism and the left usually are treated as polar opposites and theoretically incompatible (Minkenberg 1995; Mevius 2011). The main features of the radical left include a rejection of capitalism, a call for a major redistribution of resources, ‘the espousal of collective economic and social rights’ (March & Mudde 2005: 25) and internationalism.…”

Section: Theoretical Considerations On Euroscepticism and Nationalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The relationship between nationalism and left‐wing radicalism may be traced historically as the ‘product of the Enlightenment and the French revolution’ (Erk 2010: 425), where there is a close link between nationalism and civic concepts such as ‘popular sovereignty’ (Yack 2001) and ‘class’ (Schwarzmantel 1987). The combination of the national, class (Hobsbawm 1990; Mevius 2011) and popular dimensions of the French Revolution culminated in directing ‘its struggle against the social elite of its own ethnie’ (Smith 2004: 203) – in other words, in the equation of nation and people, seen from below as representing the common interest of the nation against the privileged elites (Hobsbawm 1990: 20). This explains why nationalism has been associated with early radical and labour movements of the 1830s, 1840s and 1850s (Breuilly 2011) as well as with a number of more recent radical left‐wing and/or communist movements, whose trajectory can be explained by this equation of nation with class, including Stalin's Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Mao's China, Nasser's Egypt, Ho Chi Minh's Vietnam, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (Tonnesson 2009) and Milosevic's Serbian Communist Party (Mevius 2011: 2).…”

Section: Theoretical Considerations On Euroscepticism and Nationalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The paradox of nationalism: The common denominator of radical right and radical left euroscepticism

Halikiopoulou¹,

Nanou²,

Vasilopoulou³

2012

European J Political Res

259

153

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What can explain the strong euroscepticism of radical parties of both the right and the left? This article argues that the answer lies in the paradoxical role of nationalism as a central element in both party families, motivating opposition towards European integration. Conventionally, the link between nationalism and euroscepticism is understood solely as a prerogative of radical right‐wing parties, whereas radical left‐wing euroscepticism is associated with opposition to the neoliberal character of the European Union. This article contests this view. It argues that nationalism cuts across party lines and constitutes the common denominator of both radical right‐wing and radical left‐wing euroscepticism. It adopts a mixed‐methods approach, combining intensive case study analysis with quantitative analysis of party manifestos. First, it traces the link between nationalism and euroscepticism in Greece and France in order to demonstrate the internal validity of the argument. It then undertakes a cross‐country statistical estimation to assess the external validity of the argument and its generalisability across Europe.

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Section: Theoretical Considerations On Euroscepticism and Nationalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Considerations On Euroscepticism and Nationalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

The paradox of nationalism: The common denominator of radical right and radical left euroscepticism

Halikiopoulou¹,

Nanou²,

Vasilopoulou³

2012

European J Political Res

259

153

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…To a certain extent then, Stalinist architecture and urban planning could be considered "internationalist" while simultaneously compatible with national traditions. Indeed despite the anti-nationalist rhetoric of communist ideology, socialist governments routinely cultivated popular support and legitimacy through appeals to nationalism (Adams 2008;Brandenberger 2002;Edgar 2004;Kaiser 1994;Martin 2001;Mevius 2009). For socialist urbanism, this meant that nationalist architectural forms, monuments, and commemorations were acceptable provided they formed a historical narrative positioned within a broader socialist trajectory, as reflected in the slogan "national in form, socialist in content."…”

Section: Building Socialist Places and Spacesmentioning

confidence: 99%

From socialist to post-socialist cities: Narrating the nation through urban space

Diener¹,

Hagen

2013

Natl. pap.

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The development of post-socialist cities has emerged as a major field of study among critical theorists from across the social sciences. Originally constructed under the dictates of central planners and designed to serve the demands of command economies, post-socialist urban centers currently develop at the nexus of varied and often competing economic, cultural, and political forces. Among these, nationalist aspirations, previously simmering beneath the official rhetoric of communist fraternity and veneer of architectural conformity, have emerged as dominant factors shaping the urban landscape. This article examines patterns, processes, and practices concerning the cultural politics of architecture, urban planning, and identity in the post-socialist city. In addition to assessing the main contours of this burgeoning field of research, this article highlights how this special issue of Nationalities Papers contributes to a broader understanding of contemporary cultural and political change in post-socialist urban settings.

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“…Thus, with the outburst of World War II, the communists took on the role of leaders of the national liberation struggle against foreign oppressors while simultaneously presenting themselves as heirs to true national traditions and the guardians of national interests, the defenders of "true patriotism," free of chauvinism. 6 This in turn eventually resulted in the nation becoming an "obligatory ascribed status" in the postwar communist regimes in eastern europe, as Roger Brubaker nicely explains. 7 Moreover, the war-time narrative about Yugoslavia's many nations presented the core of the postwar concept of "socialist patriotism," which Michal Kopeček defines as the "pride of progressive national traditions, the combinations of the love to one's country, language and culture with allegiance to the mutual friendship between the progressive nations on their journeys towards socialism and communism."…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vladimir’s Bakarić’s Idea of a Socialist (Croatian) Nation: From Communist Historicism to Depoliticization

Đurašković

2021

East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures

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This article examines how the long-serving Croatian communist leader Vladimir Bakarić conceptualized the Croatian self-managing nation from a set of ideas that involved decentralization, the depoliticization of national identity, and the forging of a classless self-managing nation. As the centralism of the 1950s, originally envisioned to serve the progress of socialism, eventually brought about the gradual rise of inter-national antagonisms between republics in Yugoslavia, Bakarić assumed that empowering the authorities of the republics and the autonomous provinces should serve as the necessary precondition to prevent national identity from being the source of any potential future conflicts. Subsequently, Bakarić conceptualized decentralization as a means that would eventually lead to the depoliticization of national identity, which was necessary to unleash the building of a classless self-management society accompanied by the withering away of state. This article will show how Bakarić’s concept of the nation suffered from two serious shortcomings. The first one stemmed from the 1960 purge of socialist Yugoslavism of any notion of ethnicity, since any idea of Yugoslav ethnic identity had been linked to the Greater-Serbian legacy of the pre-war Yugoslav Royal Dictatorship. The second one stemmed from the fact that ethnic nationalism was latently maintained by the deployment of historical narratives of the communists as the heirs of the true national traditions and the best guardians of the national interest.

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Reappraising Communism and Nationalism

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

The paradox of nationalism: The common denominator of radical right and radical left euroscepticism

The paradox of nationalism: The common denominator of radical right and radical left euroscepticism

From socialist to post-socialist cities: Narrating the nation through urban space

Vladimir’s Bakarić’s Idea of a Socialist (Croatian) Nation: From Communist Historicism to Depoliticization

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