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Toward a Synthesis of Conflict and Integration Theories of Nationalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Chong-Do Hah  and
Jeffrey Martin
Jeffrey Martin
Affiliation:
Lawrence University
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Abstract

This study is an attempt to generate a theory of nationalism through a synthesis of the conflict and integration theories of nationalism. On the premise that conflict and integration theories have tapped different aspects of the same phenomenon, a more powerful theory of nationalism may be distilled. Such an endeavor, however, requires the inclusion of concepts and relationships heretofore neglected in the literature of nationalism, e.g., the concept of relative deprivation.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , April 1975 , pp. 361 - 386
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1975

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References

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26 Other scholars have also expressed this proposition. Daniel Katz, for example, suggests that the motivating force behind nationalism can be “traced to three sources: it makes possible a greater satisfaction of men's material needs; it makes possible an enhanced psychic income; it supplements the projection of hatred and hostility upon ihe out-group.” See “Th e Psychology of Nationalism,” in Guilford, J. P., ed., Fields of Psychology (New York: Van Nostrand 1940), 165Google Scholar; Mostofi, Krasrow, Aspects of Nationalism, A Sociology of Colonial Revolt (Salt Lake City: Institute of Government, University of Utah 1964), 41Google Scholar.

27 Anthony Smith writes that the concepts of nationalism and in-group sentiment cannot be treated as equivalents because the latter concept deals with group identity at many levels of analysis while the former is fixed at the societal level of aggregation. Thus, the identity function fulfilled by the nation could also be fulfilled by other institutions. See “Ethnocentrism, Nationalism, and Social Change,” International Journal of Comparative Sociology, XIII (March 1972), 5.

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29 It should be noted here that the two theories are not mutually exclusive. Many scholars (Kautsky, Emerson, and Deutsch, for instance), incorporate elements from both theories into their own writings. For example, Emerson views nationalism in the context of social class conflict, yet he also recognizes integration tendencies among groups within a society. See Emerson, Rupert, From Empire to Nation (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 1960)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 The pluralist argument is best illustrated in several of the writings contained in Smith, M. G. and Kuper, Leo, eds., Pluralism in Africa (Berkeley: University of California Press 1971)Google Scholar; and Barth, Frederik, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries (Boston: Little, Brown 1969)Google Scholar.

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38 Several proponents of this theory argue that colonial relations between developed and underdeveloped countries have elevated the plane of conflict to the international system, with the developed countries adopting the role of the oppressor class and the developing countries taking the role of the oppressed class. For a more detailed discussion, see Smith (fn. 4), chap. 4. However, others—particularly Worsley and Kautsky—depict this process as taking place within the colonial society. Consequently, the process of nationalism can be treated as a conflict among groups within a society. This perspective removes the tautological definition that nationalism is anticolonialism. In addition, such a viewpoint recognizes that other types of class relationships can generate nationalism.

39 Kautsky (fn. 23), 37.

40 Ibid., 62.

41 Coser (fn. 31); Simmel (fn. 31).

42 See Zolberg (fn. 14), 460.

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45 Gellner, Ernest, Thought and Change (University of Chicago Press 1964), 163Google Scholar; Geertz (fn. 15). A note of caution: one should not necessarily equate the erosion of primordial loyalties with the erosion of traditional patterns of authority.

46 Gellner (fn. 45), 171; Smith (fn. 27), 18; also, Smith (fn. 4), chap. 6.

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52 Huntington (fn. 49), 57–59.

53 This contention is contrary to Huntington's analysis (ibid., 53–56). He argues that a combination of mobilization and inequality will lead to social frustration and ultimately to political demands only when opportunities for mobilization are not present. Although opportunities for mobilization can reduce frustration, this sort of analysis is begging the question. It has already been shown that modernization creates inequalities which include the lack of mobility for a large segment of the population. See also Geschwender, James A., “Continuities in Theories of Status Consistency and Cognitive Dissonance,” Social Forces, XLVI (December 1967), 169Google Scholar, for a discussion of mobility and frustration. The analysis offered in the present article is also in conflict with the assumption that economic growth may be dependent upon nationalism. Cf. Hoselitz, Bert F., “Nationalism, Economic Development, and Democracy,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 305 (May 1956), 3CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The discrepancy between the two positions can be explained by noting that Hoselitz perceives nationalism to be a sentiment of fellowship, while we maintain that a definition of nationalism must recognize the elements of conflict inherent in nationalism.

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56 An additional advantage of this concept is the very high degree of explanatory power it has acquired in studies of social conflict, of which nationalism is a part. For example, see Gurr, Ted, “A Causal Model of Civil Strife: A Comparative Analysis Using New Indices,” American Political Science Review, Vol. 62 (December 1968), 1104–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar, in which he explains over one-third of all civil strife by using the concept of relative deprivation. Other highly informative studies include Feierabend, Ivo K., Feierabend, Rosalind L., and Nesvold, Betty A., “Social Change and Political Violence: Cross-National Patterns,” in Feierabend, Feierabend, and Gurr, eds., Anger, Violence, and Politics (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall 1972), 107–18Google Scholar; Davies, James C., “Toward a Theory of Revolution,” American Sociological Review, XXVII (January 1962), 5–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Bwy, Douglas P., “Political Instability in Latin America: The Cross-Cultural Test of a Causal Model,” Latin American Research Review, III (Spring 1968), 17–66Google Scholar.

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62 Arnold S. Feldman, “Violence and Volatility: The Likelihood of Revolution,” in Eckstein (fn. 54), 121. Feldman describes this process as “fragmentation” rather than modernization.

63 Feierabend and others (fn. 56), 117–18.

64 The terms “traditional,” “transitional,” and “modern” societies correspond to the meaning given to them by M.I.T. Study Group, “The Transitional Process,” in Welch (fn. 16), 29–46.

65 See Michels, Robert, Political Parties (New York: Free Press 1962)Google Scholar.