‘The rise of populism is altering our understanding of nationalism – Discuss’
Populism has risen and made itself an ever-present component of mainstream politics; with an anti-establishment U.S President Donald Trump in power and the far-right anti-immigration United Kingdom Independence Party winning ‘3.88 million’ votes and ’12.6%’ of the popular vote in 2015, populism is now at the forefront of modern-day politics . A continuous element of populist right-wing ideologies has been the idea of nationalism and ‘the belief that the nation is the central principle of political organisation’ . As a result of populist right-wing political parties using the concept of nationalism as a powerful political tool and a major component of their campaigns, populism itself has, and still is transforming the image and understanding of nationalism in society today. This essay will analyse how the rise of populism, chauvinism and globalisation is altering and constructing negative perceptions of nationalism in liberal democracies such as the UK, United States of America and France.
Nationalism was formerly seen as an expression of culture, heritage and sovereignty , however the exponential growth of populism and the recent emergence of right-wing nationalist political parties has severely tarnished attitudes towards the idea of nationalism. The majority of nationalist parties such as the United Kingdom Independence Party and the French National Front were established on the concept of conservative and chauvinistic nationalism; extreme ideas of national and racial superiority over other nations, and the doctrine of others being inferior in attempt to provoke fear or anger towards them . In recent times, populist nationalist parties have adopted chauvinism as an invaluable approach in the recruitment of followers, however their interpretations of nationalism are more extreme than that of the average patriot. They possess a ‘belief that nations have particular characteristics and qualities and so have very different destinies’ and that their own people are uniquely superior to others . It is these beliefs and ideologies that fuse the concepts of nationalism and racism together in the eyes of the media and the public, and subsequently the connotations that now surround patriotism and nationalism have become increasingly negative. In an increasingly politically correct society, many find it more and more difficult to distinguish between what is seen as patriotic and what is seen as racist; which reflects how dramatically our understandings have indeed been altered through the rise of populism. Anti-establishment President of the United States Donald Trump and his ‘America First’ campaign in 2016 epitomised the rise of populism in politics; he thrived off of the concept of economic transnationalism, in which he reached out to Americans concerning the weakening powers of the nation-state over boarders and the abandonment of the working man. Transnationalism’s emergence into the political world has been provoked by globalisation and mass international migration , Donald Trump used this form of nationalism to gain the support of the working class and conservative patriots that feel their cultural heritage and identity has been discarded for mass globalisation and migration. With controversial nationalist policies such as the Muslim travel ban being labelled internationally as racist and attitudes towards minorities like Mexicans being evidently bigoted, Donald Trump is another prime example of how populism is severely altering our understanding of nationalism for the worse.
Traditional ideas of nationalism as an imagined community more associated with the preservation of minor values such as language, culture and heritage have been seemingly transformed in modern times as a result of the growth of globalisation and capitalism. The populist far-right has channelled the concept of nationalism onto a much larger international scale; recent political events such as Brexit and Donald Trump’s presidential victory in 2016, perfectly demonstrate that nationalists are now more resentful towards the corrupt political elites like the European Union that have aggrieved them of power and status. As unpatriotic cosmopolitans have gained power over, became continuously detached from the ordinary working class, populist nationalism has emerged through candidates like Trump whom fight and represent the lower classes which have been victims of the establishment agenda and globalisation . Globalisation is another argument that recent populism has altered traditional views of nationalism, as globalisation is one of many reasons to blame for the erosion of traditional national identities in modern day democracies . Globalisation and capitalism have threated nationalism for decades now, with Gellner predicting a world without nationalism as a result of the mass global industrialisation . These factors lead to Trump and the Leave campaign’s to be very much focused on economic nationalism; using this concept, they attracted supporters that wanted to see themselves and their nation prioritised in fierce foreign markets and to see them gain the benefits of globalisation instead of the corrupt political elite . Therefore, understandings of nationalism have been shifted from traditional ideas of preservation of languages and culture, towards a patriotic unity against the establishment and the elite transnationals that are frustrating the will of the people.
An alternative argument against this statement would be that the core concepts of nationalism and the ideology of chauvinism have been existent in democracies since the late 18th Century. Chauvinism ‘derived from the name of Nicholas Chauvin, a French soldier noted for his fanatical devotion to Napoleon and the cause of France’ and is constructed on the belief of racial superiority and viewing citizens of other nations as inferior beings. This is extremely similar to the populist right-wing agenda that we hear today from the likes of Trump, UKIP and the French National Front regarding the issue of mass migration in the western world. The alt-right’s use of expansionist nationalism and the anti-immigration ideology in the pursuit of cultural and economic preservation is clearly in-line with traditional forms of nationalism. Other core beliefs of Nationalism that have been present for centuries are still in embedded in modern-day populism, for example the reluctance to accept national diversity and the demand for loyalty from neighbours in the nation state . Again, populist nationalism is very comparable with these traditional fundamental concepts of nationalism; modern populist nationalist parties and candidates possess ideologies against diversity which is blamed for the dilution of cultural heritage. Also, nationalist parties in modern-day politics attempt to assemble large followings and demand loyalty from other patriots as they attempt to defend the nation-state in a sense of it’s us against them message. To summarise this point, many would argue that the rise of populism hasn’t changed the understanding of nationalism, but that the core concepts have been ever present and perhaps it is just the traditional racist ideologies of populist nationalism and its emergence into mainstream politics that simply shocks and offends people.
Despite arguments that nationalism has always shared the same fundamental beliefs, my analysis and research has shown that it is evident that the modern rise of populism in politics has definitely transformed the general understanding of nationalism in society. The clever use of nationalism in the ideologies of the alt-right to form a mainstream populist agenda in the western world has subsequently led to the image of nationalism being tarnished following fusions with racism and ethnic supremacy. Also, the evolution of the world as a result of globalisation from has taken the concept of nationalism from its humble origins of imagined communities to now down-up anti-establishment agenda against the global transnational elite whom are causing the disapproved cultural dilution of many worldwide nation states. Therefore, I stand by my initial thesis and believe that the rise of populism has altered our understanding of nationalism.