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Archive 1

Anthony Smith

I believe the Anthony Smith referred to in this article is a professor of Political Science at Tufts University, not a British adventurer and television host. I think the link directs to the wrong Anthony Smith. Could someone please check on this?

The article does link to the wrong Anthony Smith, but the one that you've suggested isn't the right person either. Anthony D. Smith, Professor Emeritus at the London School of Economics, and author of books such as The Ethnic Origins of Nations and National Identity, is likely the person that the previous editor had in mind. I'll remove the link (though, in my opinion, the entire article should be re-written). - 01011000 23:59, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

Image of Irish flag in Derry

What does this image of a dirty wall in Derry in 1986, with a painting of the Irish flag, tell anyone about ethnic nationalism?Paul111 12:05, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

"Ireland a Nation, Irish and Free"

If that ain't ethnic nationalism, I dunno what is.

It could just as easily imply cultural nationalism, and it probably does, see Irish nationalism.Paul111 12:09, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Why is the founder of modern Zionism shown?

Isn't this Religious nationalism, istead? Yes, I know "Jewish" is used an as ethnic quailifer too, but their is a few Jewish ethnicities.--Steven X 09:40, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

It is most funny to see that the chosen photos represent a Jew and a Black man. White don't support ethnic nationalists, do they? Tazmaniacs
...and Hitler. Let's at least attempt to keep the Reductio ad Hitlerum out of this article. <<-armon->> 03:25, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Quebec sovereignty movement

Why is there a link in the "see also" section that leads to quebec sovereignty movement, it has nothing to do with ethnic nationalism. Quebec nationalism is about language, not ethnicity. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.94.161.178 (talk) 07:37, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

See also

The see also list has gotten obese again. I have (a) moved all the examples of nationalisms into one column and theories, concepts, etc into the other (that seemed to be the existing logic) and (b) cut lots of the nationalisms that are least "ethnic" as according to the defition given in the article. BobFromBrockley (talk) 13:00, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

Ethnic nationalism

Given this sentence,

Ethnic nationalism is often simply referred to as "nationalism".

the article should provide the contrasts (i.e. what are non-ethnic nationalisms?). Indeed, I had supposed that a "nation" is merely an ethnic group that claims the right to statehood, or a state that legitimizes itself through ethnic identity.

There is a lot more recent scholarship besides Herder and I would expect an encyclopedia article to discuss Gellner, Anderson, and perhaps Suny and others... SR

The article in the current form does not add anyhting to the main article on nationalism. Everything it mentions is said there, every link is there too. If it is not expanded, it would be better to redirect back ot the main article.Ruzmanci 12:17, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

The distinction between ethnic nationalism and other forms is not very clear cut. In fact, some authors like Walker Connor argue that all forms of nationalism have an ethnic component. There are a number of ways that nationalism is occasionally divided into subcatagories ("demotic nationalism" and "restorative nationalism" are used by E.K. Francis) but it is not clear that there is any one definition. Unless there is a scholarly consensus (and there is not) this should be discussed as part of nationalism. --Goodoldpolonius2 02:58, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

I would tend to agree. The article says under Ideology: "Ethnic nationalism bases membership of the nation on descent or heredity—often articulated in terms of common blood or kinship" but in the introduction ethnic nationalism is said to be the belief that "nations are defined by a shared heritage, which usually includes a common language, a common faith, and a common ethnic ancestry" as well as common culture. These two definitions do not match. Is heredity in this context the same as ancestry? The second definition includes terms such as common faith, language, etc not just heredity/kinship. Are there other types of nationalism within this theoretical approach, except for ethnic and civic nationalism? For example what if nationalism is based only on heredity or only on language or only on culture or only on faith or some combination of these elements? Scholarly sources might help.Skamnelis (talk) 00:22, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Operation "Storm" in Croatia

I would like to ask, what is the argumentation for this statement: "More recent acts of violence that used ethnic nationalism as a justification include ethnic cleansing such as (...) and Operation Storm in Croatia in 1995."

Operation "Storm" was not ethnic cleansing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.0.220.89 (talk) 16:40, 22 August 2008 (UTC) 

   If Operation "Storm" isn't ethnic cleansing, there wasn't any in the whole history.Цар (talk) 10:55, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Non-ethnic nationalism?

As the standard for nation/nationalism is actually the ethnic nation/nationalism, maybe this article should disappear and another one be written on the particularities of non-ethnic sub-ethnic and supra-ethnic nationalism if such thing exists.

Examples of non-ethnic nations (with their nationalist ideology) are basically those of multiethnic states whose populations, despite their ethnic diversity consider themselves willingly part of the same nation. The most typical example is Switzerland, where 4 ethnicities willingly share the same nationality. Other less clear examples are those of many post-colonial states, specially in Africa, but also in America and Asia, made up of many ethnicities and pieces of ethniciticities and sometimes willingly considering themselves also part of the same nation. These all would be supra-ethnic nations (and nation-states as well). Arab nations divided by history or some micro-sates as Andorra could be examples of sub-ethnical nationalism. Therefore we can surely find an Egyptian or Syrian nationalism despite those nations belonging to the same Arab ethnicity. Furthermore in the Arab case I can think of a couple of sub-ethnic nationalism without state to support it: Palestine and Western Sahara. Austrian nationalism would be another example of sub-ethnic nationalism, as everybody acknowledges that Austrians are ethnically Germans.

--Sugaar 12:43, 27 August 2005 (UTC)

Panic1933 (talk) 16:17, 22 May 2013 (UTC) I'm inclined to question the usefulness of the concept of "civic nationalism" because it so modifies the idea of nationalism, opening it to any institution that welcomes members who pledge allegiance to that institution. It deviates greatly from the stem definition of a "common people." I have to agree with the talker above who denied Switzerland is a nation at all. German nationalists have long claimed the Switzerdeutsch are Germans living outside of Germany and many Swiss have at some point in time agreed. Nations are often distinct from states and have no connection to civic allegiances. Examples are Breton, Flemish, Alsatians, Basque, and even Provencal nationalists within France, who have no civic allegiances except to France. It is entirely possible to be a Breton nationalist, for example, and not demand an separate state independent of France.

Does Ulster Loyalism count?

Since the ideology of Ulster Loyalism, unlike Ulster Unionism is centered around Protestant identity, the history of Ulster's Protestant settlers, and most importantly opposition towards any sort of unification or even association with the rest of Ireland, Ulster Loyalism could be described as a form of ethnic nationalism couldn't it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Canadianpunk77 (talk • contribs) 19:15, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Religious denomination is one of the three or four major factors in ethnic identity (besides language, assumption of common descent and cultural items like dress). But of course the lines are blurry here. In case of religious conflicts, ethnic identity will often arrange itself around religious denomination explicitly, even if the conflict is purely ethnic (groups claiming the same territory), not religious (theological, surrounding a schism or heresy). Ethnic nationalism defined along denominational lines may well be taken to include Hindutva (Hinduism), Ulster Loyalism (Anglican denomination), Zionism (Judaism) and the Khalistan movement (Sikhism) and Bosniak/Serb/Croatian nationalism (ultimately a single ethnic group in origin split along Muslim/Orthodox/Catholic denominational lines).

But all of this needs better referencing. --dab (𒁳) 13:33, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Panic1933 (talk) 16:33, 22 May 2013 (UTC)Nationalism is sometimes not a useful concept even if in the case of Ulster where two "nations" (perhaps) are in conflict. Irish nationalists in Ulster are just that, but it's not really clear that Ulster Unionists are "Ulster Nationalists." Their loyalty is to the UK and no one that I'm aware of within Ulster is arguing for an independent nation or state of Ulster. Yet, oddly, the non-Irish nationalist people of Ulster (nominally Protestant, whether Presbyterian, Anglican, Methodist, or some dissenting church) are certainly distinct from their Scottish and English cousins. Are those distinctions enough to make Ulster Protestants a "nation"?

In Germany Ethnic Nationalism is Völkisch Nationalism

In Germany Ethno-Nationalist would be called just Folkish or Völkisch.--141.19.228.15 (talk) 19:27, 23 October 2015 (UTC)

Racial nationalism

"Racial nationalism" redirects to this article, but considering the subject of this article, this is probably inappropriate and deserves it's own article. Nationalism based on race, such as so-called Black nationalism and White nationalism, is a completely different topic that has little to do with the more mainstream ethnic angle that this article focuses on. Laval (talk) 07:52, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

Agreed. Ethnic nationalism is based on religion and language and is different from racial nationalism. There should be a separate article for racial nationalism. UltimateLiberty (talk) 17:42, 30 December 2015 (UTC)

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Expand, don't merge

I don't think this article should be merged with Nationalism. Nationalism encompases many variations, of which ethnic nationalism is only one. As an example, the move to separate Pakistan from India was a case of nationalism, but it was religious rather than ethnic in motivation. On the other hand, the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan was ethnically driven.

Ethnic nationalism is related to (but not limited to) political ideologies like Welsh nationalism, Zionism, the Palestinian cause, and also extremist movements like Apartheid and Nazism. I believe there is enough to expand this stub into a full-length article (which I will do when I have time, if nobody else beats me to it). Merging it with Nationalism would mean creating a monstrously long article once this section is expanded. David Cannon 01:54, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

David, I have a few concerns about your proposal. First, there is the practical issue that the current article does not exist in the form you envision, and the earlier consensus was to merge the existing article. You should feel free to create your full-length article, but until it exists, this should still be a redirect, not an inadequate placeholder.
Second, as far as I can tell, ethnic nationlism is standard nationalism, that is, a nation or volk or even religion is at least partially an ethnicity, and therefore this is tautological, especially given that individuals have many ethnic identites (addressing Sugaar's point above). That is, one can experience both Egyptian and Arab nationalism, or American and Italian nationalism, or whatever. Similar to this objection is a lack of support for the definition of ethnic nationalism in the academic community, there are a number of ways that nationalism is occasionally divided into subcatagories ("demotic nationalism" and "restorative nationalism" are used by E.K. Francis) but it is not clear that there is any one scholarly definition to rely on here that includes ethnic nationlism.
--Goodoldpolonius2 01:56, 28 September 2005 (UTC)


"ethnic nationalism" is just a tautology. natio is the very *translation* of ethnos. It is pointless to keep this separate from nationalism. Of course there can be both Egyptian and Pan-Arabic nationalism. This simply means that some envisage "Egyptians" as an ethnicity, while others envisage "Arabs" (Arabic speakers) as an ethnicity. You cannot be a nationalist of anything unless you postulate the precence of an ethnicity. You could even say that nationalism constructs an ethnicity. That's for ethnicity or ethnogenesis to explore, the fact remains that this title is tautological. Religion is, obviously, closely connected to ethnicity and nationalism. Religion is nature's way of telling people with which group they belong, and whom they should beat with pointy sticks. dab (ᛏ) 19:04, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
I agree with David. This is clearly a subset of nationalism, which encompasses opposite ideologies like civic nationalism. Dictionaries even separate it from nationalism. Skingski (talk) 00:13, 10 October 2018 (UTC)
Would also point out the statement on the page that "it is different from a purely cultural definition of "the nation", which allows people to become members of a nation by cultural assimilation; " Skingski (talk) 00:19, 10 October 2018 (UTC)

Contrast with civic nationalism

The text contrasts ethnic nationalism with civic nationalism by saying - "Rather than allegiance to common civic ideals and cultural traditions, then, ethnic nationalism tends to emphasise narratives of common descent. "

However, the civic nation (civic nationalism) per its wiki page "isn't defined by its language or culture, but by its political institutions and liberal principles..."

In other words, civic nationalism does not encourage "allegiance to... cultural traditions." I think we should delete this term (the sentence is unsourced anyway). Skingski (talk) 00:24, 10 October 2018 (UTC)

Removed Image

I removed an image (linked below) from the "characteristics" section, as it did not seem to me to illuminate anything about ethnic nationalism or be relevant to the content of the section. A more appropriate image might be a prominent ethno-nationalist theorist, the logo or flag of an ethno-nationalist party or faction, or the leader of an ethno-nationalist nation.

Removed image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UDIK-Nacionalizam_ubija_(1).jpg

Firecycle (talk) 21:52, 7 January 2019 (UTC)

White nationalism and deletion of images

One user has repeatedly removed the images from the article. I really cannot see, what he objects to.

He also removed the link to White nationalism from the See also section, claming it to be POV because "white" is not an ethnicity. I have restored the link:

  • The article does not present the POV that white nationalism is ethnic nationalism, it merely list it as an related concept, and a potential candidate to be integrated into the main text. One can in fact imagine a text saying:

-- Petri Krohn 03:23, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Eamon de Valera
Yasser Arafat

The problem with using the picture of Hitler on this page is that it is an obvious attempt to slyly equate the other people with Hitler; naturally enough, a Jew is chosen, per the current meme that Zionism is the same as Nazism. However, this really won't do; I, like Armon, invoke Godwin's law. Pick some other ethnicity to smear. Here are two options to mull over: Eamon de Valera and Yasser Arafat. Feel free to choose either or both.

Regarding "white nationalism" being an "ethnic nationalism", as I've already pointed out on Talk:White nationalism, "white" is not an ethnicity, and the sources in that article say as much. "For most Americans, “whiteness” is still a fairly artificial identity; people tend to be far more conscious of religious or ethnic background."[1] Ethnicity is clearly seen as something different from "whiteness".Jayjg (talk) 03:23, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Eamon de Valera and Yasser Arafat would indeed be good candidates; theirs were ethnic nationalism. Ethnic nationalism is a widely used term in political theory to talk about the family of nationalisms that focus on common descent, common kinship, common blood and common culture - in contrast to civic nationalism, which focuses on consent, simple belonging to a nation-state. In this definition, it doesn't matter whether whites or Jews or whoever are "really" an ethnicity. BobFromBrockley 12:41, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
Am happy with latest version that has Hitler, Herzl, Arafat, X, and not De Valera. De Valera is less well known, and it is also possible to argue that his version of Irish nationalism was more civic and less ethnic than most Irish nationalists. BobFromBrockley 10:09, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
On the gallery members. Remember, this is a wikipedia article about something very specific, ethnic nationalism, which has a particular definition in the academic literature, and is not about any old nationalism. The classical scholarly discussions of ethnic nationalism (as opposed to civic nationalism) tend to focus on nineteenth century romantic nationalism, especially in Germany, people like Johann Gottlieb Fichte, and the movements for nationhood in the multinational empires of central and eastern Europe at the turn of the 19th/20th centuries, e.g. Jozef Pilsudski. Zionism came out of this milieu, but Herzl's Zionism was the least ethnic and most civic of Zionisms - he was not that interested in Jewish culture, Jewish langauge, Jewish blood, but rather in a concrete solution to "the Jewish question" in Europe. A better example of a Zionist ethnic nationalist would probably be Ahad Ha-am (although, as he did not advocate statehood, he'd be problematic) or perhaps Vladimir Jabotinsky. Similarly, Irish nationalism comes out of this milieu, but De Valera (and I don't know much about him) was one of the most civic of Irish nationalists. Within black nationalism, Malcolm X is not the best example either of ethnic nationalism; I would opt for Marcus Garvey, who was deeply influenced by European ethnic nationalism (and Zionism). In terms of Arab nationalism, Nasser is a good example - better than Arafat, as one could argue that earlier Palestinian nationalism was ethnically open, inclusive of both Christians and Jews, and even of the Druze, so is a controversial case. Hitler is a good example, I think, as no-one would question that Nazism is a form of ethnic nationalism. I don't think that Connery is a good example, as the Scottish Nationalist Party have explicity put forward an ethnically inclusive, civic definition of Scottishness. A better example would be a representative of Hindutva, e.g. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, as Hindutva came right out of the 19th/20th century European ethnic nationalist worldview. So, my nominations for the gallery would be: Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Jozef Pilsudski, Marcus Garvey, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. BobFromBrockley 15:00, 19 June 2007 (UTC)
Just noticed that there are images I hadn't seen. Jean Sibelius is an excellent example, for reasons clear in the caption. Ziaur Rahman is a very bad example, as religion (Islam) is more important for BNP than nationality. I don't think Kwame Nkrumah is a good example: his nationalism was very cosmopolitan and inclusive. Garvey would be a better Pan-Africanist. I don't know enough about the others. I think a good standard for inclusion in the gallery would be: could you provide an authoritative citation describing them as an ethnic nationalist. But it would also be good not to include questionable cases as illustrations of ethnic nationalism (they could be discussed in the text), so a second standard would be few (ideally no) citations saying they are not an ethnic nationalist. BobFromBrockley 15:58, 19 June 2007 (UTC)
I don't think Ho Chi Minh counts as an ethnic nationalist - Marxist national liberation movements were not ethnically-based. Filiberto Ojeda Ríos I don't know enough about, but I doubt that he would count as Puerto Rican independence is not an ethnicly-based project. Slobodan Milošević is a good example though. My suggestion: move this gallery to the Nationalism page, as a fair amount of work has gone into it. Then drastically trim the version here to remove all dubious cases, as per my suggestions above. Does no-one else have a view on this? BobFromBrockley 14:41, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
Please stop this back and forth war and actually make a case for inclusion of exclusion on this talk page. Otherwise this will need to go to some sort of mediation. I don't care one way or the other about whether there is a gallery, but it must only include people who can uncontroversially be described as ethnic nationalists - i.e. not Ziaur Rahman, not Yasser Arafat, not Malcolm X, not Herzl, not De Valera. BobFromBrockley 10:14, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Tribes, tribalism?

It seems unusual that tribes and linguistic groups, such as native American tribes and languages z is not mentioned or linked at all in thus article. Doesn't that fall in a similar realm? Jimhoward72 (talk) 04:24, 30 November 2021 (UTC)

Language is mentioned in the second paragraph. "Tribe" is, I believe, just another word for "ethnicity" that is used in certain contexts; any group that you might call a "tribe" is covered here implicitly. If the article were to be expanded, it could cover specifics involving Native Americans among others, but why are you asking only about Native Americans? There are hundreds of ethnicities throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia as well. Also, are you asking for the article to discuss ethnic nationalism by these peoples or ethnic nationalism that targets them? Largoplazo (talk) 08:49, 30 November 2021 (UTC)

this article is confusing should be deleted

combine with "indigenous rights", and explain the confusion with eurocentric nationalism inherently imperialistic 2601:588:8181:C80:BDB0:6EBE:E2AF:1637 (talk) 14:32, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

The topic of ethnic nationalism goes way beyond concerns of relations between conquerors and the conquered on their own land. Largoplazo (talk) 14:56, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

o que causou genocidio armenio foi decadencia do imperialismo turco inverso de nacionalismo descontaram nos cristãos orientais a inveja da perda de influencia das ex colonias para potencias nao islamicas ocidentais isso nao tem nada a ver com nacionalismo pois os turcos nao eram nação e sim imperio o inverso de nação — Preceding unsigned comment added by 187.64.33.45 (talk) 09:49, 15 March 2022 (UTC)

Europe, Japan etc?

Ethnic nationalism exist in many places but is most prevalent in ethnostates like most European countries and Japan. The two examples being Myanmar and the USA are strange because the Myanmar thing is mostly religious nationalism Buddhist vs muslim. The US is an okay example but the US is not a literal ethnostate. France, turkey, Scandinavia, Japan are all really extreme examples of ethnic nationalism 97.113.57.76 (talk) 16:49, 5 April 2023 (UTC)

There are groups within those countries that are ethnonationalist, like zaitokukai in Japan. Calling an entire nation ethnonationalist should require objective measures though. While Japan takes pride in their culture, it's not very nationalistic in general and anti-imigration sentiment is actually extremely low (one of the lowest in the world). I'm concerned about perpetuating stereotypes and making cross-cultural understanding more difficult. Dplre (talk) 05:43, 23 July 2023 (UTC)
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