Suchergebnisse

This article pursues two aims. On the empirical level, it challenges the view of Belarus as a 'denationalised', or 'failed' nation, and exposes the country as an area of intensive nation-building. The article demonstrates that, unlike most post-communist states, two versions of national identity have been advanced in Belarus since 1989, with divergent results for their proponents. On the theoretical level, such an atypical experience places qualifications on the instrumentalist approach, that regards nation-building as a political tool. The analysis of identity creation in Belarus suggests that nation-building as a political strategy may be limited by the existing attitudes in the society in question, the socio-economic structures, as well as by the influence of foreign actors. (Nations and Nationalism,ECMI)

Historians usually try to understand and interpret the reasons for the successful result of national movements. Less attractive seems to be the question, why the early "nationalists" took the decision to persuade the members of their ethnie to accept a new national identity, i.e., why did Phase B start? The author of this article formulated many years ago the hypothesis that this decision had to do with the identity crisis caused by great reforms and changes which put in question the old system of values and legitimacy, and eroded old pre-modern ties in patriarchal or late "feudal" societies. The article tries to check this hypothesis analyzing the turn towards Phase B in the case of Czech intellectuals (in Bohemia) at the end of the eighteenth and first decade of the nineteenth centuries, in the time of radical enlightened reforms and of the wars against the French Revolution. Loosening their old ties and traditional values, these intellectuals tried to find a new identity with their nation-to-be. The author argues that this decision was not a voluntarist mood or "nationalist" plague but that it had serious social motivation. The same can be said about the turn of the incipient Czech national movement towards language and literature. (Original abstract)

This is a case study of the clerical-nationalist Slovak state established under Nazi protection during WWII. As the only example of Slovak political independence prior to the break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1993, nationalist interpretations of its legacy have helped shape the Slovak discourse on postcommunist state & nation building. To explore the impact of the Slovak state on the development of Slovak nationalism, this article examines how the ideology of the Slovak state structured the relationship between the individual, state, & nation; the roots of the regime's ideology; & the ramifications of this ideology for governance during the period of statehood. Through this exploration, I hope both to contribute to a fuller understanding of the relationship between ethnic nationalism & authoritarian patterns of governance & to lay the groundwork for further study of the sources of postcommunist Slovak political culture. 24 References. Adapted from the source document.

Reviews and discusses Orest Subtelny, 'Ukraine, a history'; and Paul R. Magosci. 'A history of Ukraine'. (Original abstract - amended)

The early independence period in Tanzania was not simply an ante-chamber to the post-Arusha Declaration period of Ujamaa. The state undertook to incorporate, for the first time, the people of Tanzania in the formal development planning structures in an attempt to marry national developmental objectives to local needs. Self-help, or "nation building" as it was also known, was an attempt to bring consensus and dialogue to the planning process. The scale of self-help activity unleashed by its formal adoption as part of rural development policy caught the government by surprise, however, and raised fears over the level of control that local government in particular was able to exert over popular efforts in development. The gradual emergence of statism in Tanzania, in place by the end of the decade, was in large part the response of a panicking state, fearing an imminent crisis in its power to direct development policy, and maintain command over scarce resources. (Original abstract)