In a descriptive analysis of elitist nationalist ideologies in Taiwan, this study challenges the traditional Western distinction between civic nationalism and ethnic nationalism. Instead, this discussion contends that the fluid historical context must always be taken into account. An overview of nationalist unrest in Taiwan over a century includes Japanese colonization (1895–1945), four decades of martial law (1945–1985), and afterwards (1986–2000).

Essay from the year 2002 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Russia, grade: 1 (A), University of Birmingham (Centre for Russian and East European Studies), course: Graduate Russian and East European Studies, 24 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: This essay compares the development of different understandings of nationalism in Western and Eastern Europe comparing the concepts of civic and ethnic nationalism.

By shifting the analytical focus from identity to identifications, from groups as entities to group-making projects, from shared culture to categorisation, from substance to process, Brubaker shows that ethnicity, race and nation are not things in the world but perspectives of the world.

As questions of citizenship generate new debates for this generation of Americans, Brook Thomas argues for revitalizing the role of literature in civic education. Thomas defines civic myths as compelling stories about national origin, membership, and values that are generated by conflicts within the concept of citizenship itself. Selected works of literature, he claims, work on these myths by challenging their terms at the same time that they work with them by relying on the power of narrative to produce compelling new stories. Civic Myths consists of four case studies: Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and "the good citizen"; Edward Everett Hale's "The Man without a Country" and "the patriotic citizen"; Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and "the independent citizen"; and Maxine Hong Kingston's China Men and "the immigrant citizen." Thomas also provides analysis of the civic mythology surrounding Abraham Lincoln and the case of Ex parte Milligan. Engaging current debates about civil society, civil liberties, civil rights, and immigration, Thomas draws on the complexities of law and literature to probe the complexities of U.S. citizenship.

What kinds of civic ties between different ethnic communities can contain, or even prevent, ethnic violence? This book draws on new research on Hindu-Muslim conflict in India to address this important question. Ashutosh Varshney examines three pairs of Indian cities—one city in each pair with a history of communal violence, the other with a history of relative communal harmony—to discern why violence between Hindus and Muslims occurs in some situations but not others. His findings will be of strong interest to scholars, politicians, and policymakers of South Asia, but the implications of his study have theoretical and practical relevance for a broad range of multiethnic societies in other areas of the world as well. The book focuses on the networks of civic engagement that bring Hindu and Muslim urban communities together. Strong associational forms of civic engagement, such as integrated business organizations, trade unions, political parties, and professional associations, are able to control outbreaks of ethnic violence, Varshney shows. Vigorous and communally integrated associational life can serve as an agent of peace by restraining those, including powerful politicians, who would polarize Hindus and Muslims along communal lines.

The majority of the existing work on nationalism has centered on its role in the creation of new states. After Independence breaks new ground by examining the changes to nationalism after independence in seven new states. This innovative volume challenges scholars and specialists to rethink conventional views of ethnic and civic nationalism and the division between primordial and constructivist understandings of national identity. "Where do nationalists go once they get what they want? We know rather little about how nationalist movements transform themselves into the governments of new states, or how they can become opponents of new regimes that, in their view, have not taken the self-determination drive far enough. This stellar collection contributes not only to comparative theorizing on nationalist movements, but also deepens our understanding of the contentious politics of nationalism's ultimate product--new countries." --Charles King, Chair of the Faculty and Ion Ratiu Associate Professor, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service "This well-integrated volume analyzes two important variants of nationalism-postcolonial and postcommunist-in a sober, lucid way and will benefit students and scholars alike." --Zvi Gitelman, University of Michigan Lowell W. Barrington is Associate Professor of Political Science, Marquette University.

The primordial bonds of early societies—common ancestry or tribal bonds and territorial or neighborhood bonds—are at the root of early political organization. States based on common tribal or ethnic identity have tended to develop into highly nationalistic states. The civic state, based upon territory, appeared in embryonic form in Athens. It was Rome, however, that made the complete transition, creating a civic state based on an association of free citizens, irrespective of ethnicity. The tribal state in its extreme, often totalitarian, form has led to genocide, holocausts, and ethnic cleansing. The civic or territorial state has developed into modern pluralistic, multiethnic, democratic states with equal rights for diverse groups. This was accomplished by a historical process of separation of ethnicity from citizenship. As Feliks Gross shows, there are many types of civic and tribal states: they do not fit into a single model, but they can be grouped into related families. This important survey of political and social development will be of great interest to students and scholars of political sociology, ethnic studies, and political history.