Ethnic nationalism, also known asethnonationalism,[1] is a form ofnationalism wherein thenation andnationality are defined in terms ofethnicity,[2][3] with emphasis on anethnocentric (and in some cases anethnostate/ethnocratic) approach to variouspolitical issues related to national affirmation of a particular ethnic group.[4][5]
The central tenet of ethnic nationalists is that "nations are defined by a shared heritage, which usually includes acommon language, a common faith, and acommon ethnic ancestry".[6] Those of other ethnicities may be classified assecond-class citizens.[7][8] Because of these attributed, ethnic nationalism is closely related tonativism, and is associated with theradical right.[9]
Scholars ofdiaspora studies broaden the concept of "nation" todiasporic communities. The terms "ethnonation" and "ethnonationalism" are sometimes used to describe a conceptual collective of dispersed ethnics.[10] Defining anethnos widely can lead to ethnic nationalism becoming a form ofpan-nationalism or macronationalism, as in cases such aspan-Germanism orpan-Slavism.[11]
In scholarly literature, following a theoretical distinction byHans Kohn, ethnic nationalism is usually contrasted withcivic nationalism, although this distinction has also been criticized.[12][13][14][15]
The study of ethnonationalism emerged in the early 20th century in the interwar period betweenWorld War I andWorld War II, with the "redrawing of the political map of Europe in part along ethnic and national lines according to a proclaimed "right of peoples" toself-determination and the rise offascist ethnocentric ideologies (includingNazism).[16] PhilosopherHans Kohn was one of the first to differentiate ethnic nationalism fromcivic nationalism in his 1944 publicationThe Idea of Nationalism: A Study in Its Origins and Background.[17]
During theCold War, the independence movement initiated in former European colonies in Asia and Africa reinvigorated research into ethnic, tribal and national identities and the "political difficulties" stemming from their interactions with territorial statehood,[16] while thecollapse of the Soviet Union in the 1980s and 1990s and the "resurgence of ethnic and national claims and conflicts in its aftermath" only further spurred ethnonationalism scholarship in the late 20th century.[16]
Increased international migration as a function of contemporary globalization has also given rise to "ethno-national" movements, including reactionary "nativist" groups focused on exclusionaryidentity politics. In the developed world, such trends have in some cases taken on an explicitly xenophobic and racist character, as seen in the example of "white nationalism" in the United States.[16]
The central political tenet of ethnic nationalism is thatethnic groups are entitled toself-determination.[citation needed] The outcome of this right to self-determination may vary, from calls for self-regulated administrative bodies within an already established society, to anautonomous entity separate from that society, to the institution ofethnic federalism within a multi-ethnic society, to establishing an independentsovereign state removed from that society. In international relations, it also leads to policies and movements forirredentism to claim a common nation based upon ethnicity,[citation needed] or for the establishment of anethnocratic (mono-ethnocratic or poly-ethnocratic) political structure in which thestate apparatus is controlled by a politically and militarily dominant ethnic nationalist group or a group of several ethnic nationalist groups from select ethnicities to further its interests, power and resources.[18]
In scholarly literature, ethnic nationalism is usually contrasted withcivic nationalism. Ethnic nationalism bases membership of the nation on descent or heredity, often articulated in terms of common blood or kinship, rather than on political membership. Hence,nation states with strong traditions of ethnic nationalism tend to define nationality or citizenship byjus sanguinis (the law of blood, descent from a person of that nationality), and countries with strong traditions of civic nationalism tend to define nationality or citizenship byjus soli (the law of soil, birth within the nation state). Ethnic nationalism is, therefore, seen as exclusive,[by whom?] while civic nationalism tends to be inclusive.[according to whom?] Rather than allegiance to common civic ideals and cultural traditions, then, ethnic nationalism tends to emphasise narratives of common descent.[citation needed]
Some types of ethnic nationalism are firmly rooted in the idea of ethnicity as an inherited characteristic, for exampleblack nationalism orwhite nationalism.[citation needed] Often ethnic nationalism also manifests in theassimilation of minority ethnic groups into the dominant group, for example as withItalianisation.[citation needed] This assimilation may or may not be predicated on a belief in some common ancestry with assimilated groups (for example withGermanisation in the Second World war).[citation needed] An extreme version isracial nationalism.[citation needed]
Recent theories and empirical data suggest that people maintain dual lay beliefs about nationality, such that it can be both inherited biologically at birth and acquired culturally in life.[19]
In 2018,Tendayi Achiume, a UN Special Rapporteur onracism, released a UN Human Rights Council report which states that "more than 75% of the world's known stateless populations belong to minority groups" and highlights the role of ethnonationalism in the international deprivation of citizenship rights.[20] In the report, Achiume re-stated that international human rights law prohibits citizens from discriminating against non-citizens on the basis of their race, descent, national or ethnic origin and she also stated that citizenship, nationality, and immigration laws which discriminate against non-citizens are violations of international law.[20] She also noted the role of laws restricting marriage rights with respect to certain national, religious, ethnic or racial groups, which she said were "often deployed by states to preserve notions of national, ethnic and racial "purity"."[20] Achiume called ethnonationalist politics the "most obvious driver of racial discrimination in citizenship and immigration laws" and driven by populist leaders defining nations "in terms of assumed blood ties and ethnicity".[20]
In the 19th and 20th centuries, European colonial powers used ethnonationalism to justify barring colonial subjects from citizenship, and in Europe,Jews andRoma were excluded from citizenship on the same grounds.[20] Today, migrants are a frequent target of ethnonationalist rhetoric related to "ethnic purity and religious, cultural or linguistic preservation".[20] Even countries with proud histories of immigration have fallen prey to the vilification of "certain racial, religious and national groups" on prejudicial grounds. Achiume called the case of theRohingya Muslims a "chilling example", with the Burma Citizenship Act of 1982 discriminating based on ethnicity and rendering many Rohingya stateless.[20] The violation of the rights ofAfro-CaribbeanBritish citizens from the "Windrush generation" is a pertinent example of similar prejudice in the developed world but states all over the world use misinformation to portray "certain racial, national and religious groups as inherent threats to national security" and justify stripping or denying rights.[20]
Extreme forms of ethnic nationalism, as in the case ofMyanmar and its government'spersecution of theRohingya, have been identified as causes of variousgenocides and episodes ofethnic cleansing.[21][22][23] In his 2005 bookThe Great Game of Genocide, historianDonald Bloxham argued that theArmenian genocide "represents a clear logic of ethnic nationalism when it is carried to its absolute extreme in multinational societies."[24]
Social Ethno-nationalism is a doctrine aimed at promoting social progress while defending the ethnic interests of different peoples, both emancipation and supremacy.[citation needed] For example, theAustralian Labor Party had a strongwhite nationalist component and has openly supported theWhite Australia policy in the past.[25][non-primary source needed]
ThePeople's Republic of Congo regime was designed as a Soviet-style socialist one-party state, it was essentially a military regime with a strongly ethno-regional character. Members of the southern ethnic groups, who were far more numerous than northerners, were included in the power structure, but the top leaders were consistently northerners. In Guinea-Bissau underLuís Cabral was by some sections of the ruling party accused that he and the other members with Cape Verdean origins of dominating the party."
Ethnic nationalism is present in many states' immigration policies in the form ofrepatriation laws.Armenia,Bosnia and Herzegovina,Bulgaria,Croatia,Finland,Germany,Hungary,Ireland,Israel,Serbia andTurkey provide automatic or rapid citizenship to members of diasporas of their predominant ethnic group, if desired.[6]: 33
Turkey is described as an ethnocracy by multiple scholars.[27][28][29][30] Nationalism, has functioned as a dominant ideological framework in Turkey, enabling the marginalization of three officially recognized non-Muslim minorities—theGreeks,Armenians, andJews—as well as theassimilation, colonial subjugation, and at timesethnic cleansing of non-Turkish Muslim groups.[27][31]
According to Article 66 of the Turkish Constitution, "everyone bound to the Turkish state through the bond of citizenship is a Turk."[32] According to the constitution, there are nominority rights since all citizens are Turks. This constitutional article ignores ethnic and religiousminority rights. Although theTreaty of Lausanne guarantees some rights to non-Muslim minorities, in practice Turkey recognizes only Armenians, Greeks and Jews as minorities and excludes other non-Muslim groups.[33]
Bilge Azgın points to government policies whose goals are the "exclusion, marginalization, or assimilation" of minority groups that are non-Turkish as the defining elements of Turkish ethnocracy. Jack Fong describes Turkey's policy of referring to its Kurdish minority as "mountain Turks" and itsrefusal to acknowledge any separate Kurdish identity as elements of the Turkish ethnocracy.[34]Since 1918, political elites withpan-Turkist-oriented sentiments in Azerbaijan have depended on the concept of ethnic nationalism to create an anti-Iranian sense of ethnicity amongIranian Azerbaijanis. While Azerbaijani PresidentIlham Aliyev has attempted to dismiss claims that his government is taking any anti-Iranian ethnic nationalist positions, the Iranian government and groups like Iranian nationalist circles, especially Iranian Azerbaijanis, are dubious about the intentions of the Azerbaijani government due to the ongoing actions of irredentist elements likeCongress of World Azerbaijanis orSouthern Azerbaijan National Awakening Movement and the support that they receive from Azerbaijani authorities, both state andnon-state.[35] According toAkbar Ahmed, after the country gained independence in 1991, the Lezgin and Avar peoples of Azerbaijan "became subjected toAtaturk-style ethnic nationalism by the Azeri-dominated center."[36]
TheState of Israel originated from the conceptions and principles ofTheodore Herzl's workDer Judenstaat, which envisioned the creation of astate for the Jewish people inPalestine orArgentina[37] as a solution to theJewish question inEurope posed byRomantic nationalists.[citation needed] In his later work,The Old New Land, Herzl envisioned abi-national state, where Jews only made up a majority in a few cities and everyone spokeGerman.[38][39][40]
Concerns about ethnonationalism in Israel were raised since theKnesset's adoption of theIsrael as the Nation-State of the Jewish People as part of itsbasic laws under theFourth Netanyahu government, an act which washighly controversial within Israel itself[41][42] and among various Jewish groups in thediaspora,[43] as it potentially threatened the formula of Israel as aJewish and democratic state. This law was controversial especially with manyLeft Zionists, who saw the bill as undermining Israeli democracy.[44][45][46][47]
InMalaysia, theBumiputera principle recognises the "special position" of the Malays provided in theConstitution of Malaysia, in particularArticle 153. However, the constitution does not use the term bumiputra; it defines only "Malay" and "indigenous peoples" (Article 160(2)),[48] "natives" of Sarawak (161A(6)(a)),[49] and "natives" of Sabah (Article 161A(6) (b)).[49] Some pro-Bumiputra policies exist asaffirmative action for bumiputras since theMalaysian New Economic Policy is based on race, not deprivation. For instance, all Bumiputra, regardless of their financial standing, are entitled to a 7 percent discount on houses or property, including luxurious units, but low-income non-Bumiputra receive no such financial assistance.
Other preferential policies include quotas for admission to government educational institutions, qualifications for public scholarships, marking of universities exam papers, special classes prior to university's end of term exams, positions in government and ownership of businesses. Most of the policies were established in the 1970s. Many policies focus on trying to achieve a Bumiputra share of corporate equity of at least 30% of the total.Ismail Abdul Rahman proposed that target after the government was unable to agree on a suitable policy goal.[citation needed]
Although American nationalism is typically described as a paradigmatic example of civic nationalism,[50] political scientist Jack Thompson has argued that since the2016 US presidential election, ethnonationalism has been pushed to the fore of the American political consciousness by the identity politics ofDonald Trump surrounding what it means to be a "true" American, which has resulted in ethnocentric ideals becoming "a robust predictor of vote choice for Trump" amongwhite Americans.[51] Thompson notes that data from the 2016American National Election Studies (ANES) has revealed a positive association between ethnonationalism and anti-immigrant attitudes among white Americans, whose opposition to immigration is "often grounded in fears of the threat that immigration poses to the robustness of America's national identity" that is shaped by the belief set concerning the traits of "true" Americans.[52]
Nuestra lucha por la independencia, por la autodeterminación es tomar el planteamiento histórico de nuestro pueblo para mantenerse y seguir siendo pueblo
Turkey has been from its inception, and is today, an "ethnocracy" (Anderson, 2016; Yiftachel, 2006).
An "ethnocratic state," according to Ghanem is one that is controlled by one ethnic group and that operates in the interests of that dominant ethnic group. Other states that Ghanem labels ethnocratic states are Turkey, Sri Lanka, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.
...Turkey's principle of political organization is best categorized as an ethnocracy: it ethnicizes citizenship and stipulates rights on ethnic bases...In contrast, the Kurdish movement opposes the national order where ethnic Turks are perceived to be the masters of the state and enjoy the dominant position through determining conditions of belonging to the state, and the distribution of rights and resources.
