3 - Nation-building

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Can identification theory be applied to political analysis? And, if it is applied, is the practice theoretically sound? The argument of this chapter follows on directly from the previous chapter and describes how identification theory can be used to analyse the question of political integration or nation-building.

The overall purpose of the chapter is straightforward: if the identification imperative can be coherently demonstrated as a major dynamic in nation-building, then it can be logically suggested that the mass general public which has made such a national identification will tend to act together to defend or enhance that identity. The basic theoretical building blocks will thus have been laid for using identification theory as an analytical tool for investigating the behaviour of the mass national public in relation to international politics and its country's foreign policy; this investigation is the subject matter of the next chapter.

The previous chapter presented a clear theoretical mode for investigating, at a level of analysis concerned with indentification, the nature and dynamics of the psychological link between an idividual and her/his nation. This chapter is now concerned with spelling out the circumstances which will tend to evoke this identification with the nation.

Its major focus, then, is upon the mass psychological aspect of political integration. This requires that the mass psychological aspect be disengaged from the more complex issues of political participation and social mobilisation.