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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2009
Science and reason have, from the beginning of time, played a secondary and subordinate part in the life of nations; so it will be to the end of time. Nations are built up and moved by another force which sways and dominates them, the origin of which is inexplicable.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The PossessedA portion of mankind may be said to constitute a Nationality, if they are united among themselves by common sympathies which do not exist between them and others – which make them cooperate with each other more willingly than with other people, desire to be under the same government, and desire that they should be governed either by themselves or a portion of themselves exclusively … the strongest of all identity is that of political antecedents …
John Stuart MillThe language of political science contains few concepts more fugitive than that of nation. For every definition proposed, a host of examples appear to qualify or reject it. Ernest Renan defined a nation as
a grand solidarity constituted by the sentiment of sacrifices which have been made in the past and those that one is disposed to make again. It supposes a past, renews itself especially in the present by a tangible deed, the approval, the desire, clearly expressed, to continue the communal life. The existence of a nation (pardon the expression) is an everyday plebiscite.
Walker Connor, in a simple, elegant way, defined a nation as a group of people “who believe that they are related by ancestry.
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