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National identity and the “Kohn dichotomy”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

John Coakley
John Coakley*
Affiliation:
aSchool of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK bGeary Institute for Public Policy, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article assesses the analytical value of the “Kohn dichotomy” – the notion that there are two types of nationalism, resting on civic values in the West and on ethnic values outside the West. It begins by outlining the intellectual history of this dichotomy since its origin in the 1860s and by analyzing its main features. It contrasts the state traditions of Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe in three areas: the geopolitical evolution of the state, the state's perspective on its own population as reflected in efforts to measure “ethnic nationality” through such instruments as the population census, and divergences in citizenship law. It shows that data from recent programs of comparative survey research, and analysis of nationalist ideology, highlight the variety of forms that nationalism may take in the two parts of Europe. The article concludes that the “ethnic–civic” dichotomy is valuable as an ideal type with the capacity to shed light on the nature of ethnic affiliation, not as a categorical classification system. Different ethnonational groups comprise mixtures of people who use a combination of “ethnic” and “civic” reference points; they do not coincide with global territorial zones that may be identified with any level of clarity.

Keywords

Hans KohnnationalismEuropecivic nationalismethnic nationalismlanguage
Type
Special Section: Representation of minorities: perspectives and challenges Guest Editors: Licia Cianetti and Jelena Lončar
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , March 2018 , pp. 252 - 271
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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