Original scientific paper
The Nation and Ethnos in Action: Ethno-Nationalism and Its Paradigm
Silva Mežnarić
; Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The paper is the first part of a wider project dealing with the conceptual analysis of nations and ethne in action (ethno-nationalism). The author first presents some methodological problems in regard to the definition of the very problem. She claims that all modern research on ethnos and the nation must be biased, and that therefore bias must be included in the methodology. She then analyses the concepts of ethnos and the nation as offered by contemporary sociology (Sartori), and finds that the ethnic collectivity has an ascriptive character with an additional complication: its vitality in contemporary societies. According to the author it is useful to distinguish ethnic groups and ethnic categories. Ethnic groups are collective bodies, socio-political artefacts subject to historic changes, while categories are more or less permanent entities. Almost all assimilation policies are based on attempts to convert categories into ethnic groups subject to political manipulation. Furthermore the author distinguishes ethnic and interest groups and classes. The interest group is a collective body organised with the goal of gaining greater individual or group benefits for its members. On achieving these benefits interest groups cease to exist, which is their basic difference from ethnic groups. The possibility of associating ethnic groups for the attainment of long-term benefits for the ethnic community brings them closer to the level of the nation. Yet a difference still exists in that ethnic groups exclude from their collective interests intermediation or renewed inter-mediation of political sovereignty. The paper concludes by presenting some “minimal” definitions of the concepts used: ethnic categories, ethnic denotations, ethnic networks and ethno-nations.
Keywords
nation; ethnos; ethno-nationalism; ethnic group
Hrčak ID:
128043
URI
Publication date:
29.9.1989.
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