European nations and nationalism. Theoretical and historical perspectives

Book abstract:

This source book presents a comparative perspective about the political and socio-economic past and present of fifteen Western, Central and East European countries. This includes the economic and social aspects of the development of the nation state, descriptions of the current political structures and institutions, an account of the types of ethnic composition of the populations, definitions of citizenship and a background to the existing political parties and preferences. The countries covered in the book are: the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Britain, France, Spain and Italy.

The idea for a comparative and cross-national survey emerged at a conference on nationalism, ethnic conflict and conceptions of citizenship and democracy held in Utrecht in 1995. All contributors were given the outline of a common format to follow. Within this format, the first section covers historical development, describing long-term trends up to the current political form and sketching the political structure of the state, indicating when nationalism sprang up, and when the democratic form was achieved. The second section covers key economic and social transformations in the history of the state: the transition from a feudal to capitalistic or socialist economy, the spread of literacy, the development of educational institutions and the onset of the process of industrialisation and modernisation. This section also includes a description of the social classes and strata as well as their economic and political power. The third section describes the present political structure, giving an overview of each country's current political situation in terms of the nature and functions of the main political institutions, and an indication of the dangers of nationalism and ethnic antagonism. The last section is intended to indicate the current legal definition of citizenship, analyse its consequences and illustrate national symbols. While this scheme gives a framework to each author, they were free to adapt it to their country's circumstances, so a paragraph-by-paragraph comparison is not possible, but the reader can use each essay as a basis for comparison and contrast.