Perennialist Concept Of Nationalism

Literature Review

The main concept of this literature review is to analyse the conceptions of nationalism. By doing so, one can gain an insight on the different concepts that have helped or hindered with the creation, and development of nations. In order to do so, it is important to consider several factors. For example, the different nationalist theories, national identity, the role of ethnic societies, the concept of a historical territory, social factors, economic factors, as well as, political factors.

One of the famous concepts of nationalism is the ‘perennialist theory’. To be more specific, it has been argued that a nation is a collection of individuals that share similarities (Smith, 1991:40). In other words, for a nation to be successful,

To be more specific, national identity consists of a historic territory, common myths and common cultural traits (Smith, 1991:15). One could argue that such factors aid with bringing people together thus, allowing a nation to develop (Smith, 1991; Painter and Jeffrey, 2012). As well as that, it has also been argued that the presences of a national identity will lead to easier cultural grouping. One could theorise, that the concept of a national identity favours the perennialist theory, as a national identity aims to provide a sense of trust and belonging within people thus, creating a collective identity (Storey, 2001:54). It is important to note that there should be a clear distinction between national identity and cultural identity. To be more specific, although one might immigrate to another community, one will always remain a member of the community that they originate from (Smith, 1991:11). Conversely, it has also been argued that national identity, particularly in the modern world has provided an identity myth. In other words, the identity myth refers to territory or ancestry (Smith,1991:8). One could theorise that the concept of national identity is conceived in a different way in the modern era. As a result, although national identity has changed over time the factor of national identity does give a sense of political community (Smith, 1991:9). Thus, allowing the nation to