The history of the dichotomy of civic Western and ethnic Eastern nationalism

Bugge, Peter

doi:10.1080/14608944.2021.2007526

Cited by 6 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Investigating ideological variation and shifting political functions of nationalism contributes to a ‘empirical turn’ within the constructivist paradigm, correcting biases such as the orientalising of certain geocultural spaces (Bugge, 2022, p. 506) and the reduction of central and eastern European nationalism to a repressive force (Cole, 2012, p. 107). The findings support a differentiated view of nationalism that comes in different, inclusionary and exclusionary versions, serving competing political projects (Brubaker, 2004; Yael, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Traditionally, scholars of the Habsburg Empire have viewed nationalism through an ethnic lens, following Hans Kohn's dichotomy of ethnic nationalism in ‘the East’ and civic nationalism in ‘the West’ 1 . After 1918, the binary of ethnic Eastern versus civic Western was key to the reimagining of post‐Habsburg central Europe, influencing statesmen like Woodrow Wilson as well as social and political scientists (Bugge, 2022; Jaskułowski, 2010; Wolff, 2020). The discursive construction of central and eastern Europe as a ‘backward’ geocultural space that was shaped by ‘oppressive’ ethnic nationalism, constituted a form of orientalising that helped to justify the Great Powers' creation of a new European order (Tinsley, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Varieties of nationalism in the political discourses of Habsburg Austria

Decker

2023

Nations and Nationalism

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Nationalism in the Habsburg Empire is traditionally viewed through an ethnic lens. Despite a growing literature on 'national indifference' that studies nationalism in Habsburg central Europe from a constructivist perspective and advances our knowledge concerning variations in national identifications, the nationalism implied in these works remains largely limited to an exclusionary ethnic type. This reductionist view of central European nationalism mirrors the traditional dichotomy of ethnic 'Eastern' versus civic 'Western' nationalism. In order to avoid this reduction, this article approaches nationalism as a thin-centred ideology and explores varieties of nationalism in Habsburg Austria during the long 19th century. Although certain ideational paths made ethno-nationalism appear, retrospectively, as a quasi-natural feature of central Europe, the findings show that there developed rival discursive traditions of nationalism and competing representations of nation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Varieties of nationalism in the political discourses of Habsburg Austria

Decker

2023

Nations and Nationalism

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“…The ethnic/civic framework goes back at least to Kohn (1944), classifying Europe into mainly ethnic versus mainly civic nations and peoples. The original idea of assigning entire nations to one type or another is not convincing (e.g., Bugge, 2022), but the framework nevertheless remains useful for describing different traditions of conceptualizing the nation. Accordingly, the focal point of the ideal‐typical ethnic conception of national identity is genealogy.…”

Section: Mapping National‐identity Content: the Civic/ethnic Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stability of National‐Identity Content: Level, Predictors, and Implications

Mader

Schoen

2023

Political Psychology

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A neglected topic in empirical research on national identity is its stability at the individual level, and this is especially true for its content, that is, the meaning elements that people associate with the concept of nation. In this article, we study the stability of key dimensions of national‐identity content. We ask three simple questions: How stable is national‐identity content—as captured in the ethnic/civic framework—at the level of individual citizens? Are there clear differences in stability across subgroups? What are the implications of interindividual differences in stability? Analyzing data from four waves of a large‐scale panel survey of German citizens (N = 4,654) collected over a five‐year period (2016–21), we show that there is high but not perfect stability of the degree to which individuals subscribe to ethnic and civic criteria of nationhood. Second, we find little difference in stability as a function of several theoretically selected characteristics. Third, we show that the association between national‐identity content and relevant political attitudes (immigration attitudes and far‐right party support) increases with intraindividual stability. These findings have important implications for our understanding of how national‐identity content is shaped and mobilized and how it can influence political attitudes and behaviors.

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“…To be clear, the purpose of this exercise is not to determine whether the Kohn dichotomy is conceptually coherent or empirically valid but to provide a fuller account of how this framework functions in Western academic and political discourse. At stake is not the analytical utility of the binary but how this binary participates in the epistemological and political ordering of the world (Bugge, 2022, p. 506). More concretely, the article shows how the Kohn dichotomy helps to gloss over the contradictions of the modern nation form by constructing an international hierarchy between Western and non‐Western nations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mind the gap: The nation form and the Kohn dichotomy

Heiskanen

2023

Nations and Nationalism

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The dichotomy between civic Western nationalism and ethnic non‐Western nationalism (also known as “the Kohn dichotomy” after the historian of nationalism Hans Kohn) remains one of the most influential frameworks for understanding nationalism. It is also one of the most controversial: The binary schema has been criticised not only for its conceptual inconsistencies but also for entrenching an ethnocentric hierarchy that depicts Western nations as fountains of civic virtue. This article enriches these longstanding debates by excavating the neglected inverse side of the Kohn dichotomy. Since the late nineteenth century, the idealised Western nation is imagined not only as a civic polity united by common political traditions but also as an organic community blessed with natural boundaries. In short, Western nations are depicted as both civic and ethnic. Meanwhile, non‐Western nations are denied the privilege of being contradictory and deemed to suffer from a perennial mismatch between civic and ethnic elements: Non‐Western nations are depicted either as ethnic communities lacking civic traditions or as artificial political constructions lacking organic roots. Without taking into account this intricate dialectic between the civic and ethnic poles of the nation form, critics of the Kohn dichotomy will struggle to fully grasp its ideological functions or historical longevity.

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The history of the dichotomy of civic Western and ethnic Eastern nationalism

Cited by 6 publications

References 37 publications

Varieties of nationalism in the political discourses of Habsburg Austria

Varieties of nationalism in the political discourses of Habsburg Austria

Stability of National‐Identity Content: Level, Predictors, and Implications

Mind the gap: The nation form and the Kohn dichotomy

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