nationalism

is a set of political activities that aim to make the boundaries of the nation coterminous with those of the state.

More than three decades after Rokkan, Michael Hechter has proposed a theory of nationalism based on the stages of state-formation. According to Hechter, 'nationalism consists of political activities that aim to make the boundaries of the nation – a culturally distinctive collectivity aspiring to self-governance – coterminous with those of the state'.

Therefore, nationalism is a by-product of the modern state. Premodern states ignored it because they were mainly in the form of empires whose governance units had frontiers including 'culturally distinct groups': this system of 'indirect rule thwarts nationalism' (ibid., p. 28). On the contrary, nationalism emerged when technical developments (in terms of communications, mainly) made direct rule possible. Hechter calls the first variety of nationalism that then crystallized 'state-building nationalism' because it is reflected in 'efforts at cultural homogenization' (ibid., p. 56).

Michael HechterThinkers

Michael Hechter