Really Existing Nationalisms A Post-Communist View from Marx and Engels

by Benner, Erica

• ISBN13: 9780198279594
• ISBN10: 0198279590
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-02-01
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

This is an impressive re-examination of the theories of Marx and Engels on nationalism. The author challenges the conventional view that Marx and Engels lacked the theoretical resources needed to understand nationalism. It argues that the two men had a much better explanatory grasp ofnational phenomena than is usually supposed, and that the reasoning behind their policy towards specific national movements was often subtle and sensitive to the ethical issues at stake. Instead of offering an insular 'Marxian' account of nationalism, the book identifies arguments in Marx and Engels' writings that can help us to think more clearly about national identity and conflict today. These arguments are located in a distinctive theory of politics, which enabled the authorsto analyse the relations between nationalism and other social movements and to discriminate between democratic, outward-looking national programmes and authoritarian, ethnocentric nationalism. The book suggest that this approach improves on accounts which stress the 'independent' force ofnationality over other concerns, and on thos that fail to analyse the complex motives of nationalist actors. It concludes by criticizing these 'methodological nationalist' assumptions and 'post-nationalist' views about the future role of nationalism, showing how some of marx and Engles' argumentscan yield a better understanding of the national movements that have emerged in the wake of 'really existing socialism'.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	ix
Introduction	1	(14)
Nationality in the Divided State	15	(42)
Three Concepts of the Nation	16	(6)
Political Philosophy: the Critique of Hegel	22	(14)
Theory of History: Class, State, and Nation	36	(12)
Theory of Political Action, or Why the Workers have no Vaterland	48	(9)
Identities in Conflict	57	(36)
Natural and Social Sources of Warfare	60	(9)
Community, Freedom, and National Identity	69	(12)
The Rise of Ethnocentric Nationalism	81	(12)
Explaining Nationalism	93	(45)
Elements of Theory	95	(9)
Liberal and Statist Nationalism in Germany	104	(10)
Principles and Interests in Foreign Policy	114	(8)
The Social Bases of Popular Nationalism	122	(16)
Ethics and Realpolitik in the National Policy, 1847--1849	138	(33)
The Theory behind the Policy	142	(6)
Criterion 1: International Reciprocity	148	(4)
Criterion 2: Social Reform	152	(7)
Criterion 3: Viability	159	(12)
Rescuing Internationalism	171	(38)
Anti-colonial Nationalism outside Europe	172	(14)
Ireland and the Independence Question	186	(11)
Working-class Patriotism and the First International	197	(12)
The Revenge of Nations, 1870--?	209	(48)
The Nationalizing of Socialism?	210	(12)
The Non-autonomy of Nationalism	222	(19)
Some Post-nationalist Fallacies	241	(16)
Bibliography	257	(6)
Index	263