Hostname: page-component-5db58dd55d-d6ndz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-25T17:02:36.036Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Nation-Building or Nation-Destroying?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Walker Connor
Affiliation:
State University of New YorkBrockport
Get access

Extract

Scholars associated with theories of “nation-building” have tended either to ignore the question of ethnic diversity or to treat the matter of ethnic identity superficially as merely one of a number of minor impediments to effective state-integration. To the degree that ethnic identity is given recognition, it is apt to be as a somewhat unimportant and ephemeral nuisance that will unquestionably give way to a common identity uniting all inhabitants of the state, regardless of ethnic heritage, as modern communication and transportation networks link the state's various parts more closely. Both tendencies are at sharp variance with the facts, and have contributed to the undue optimism that has characterized so much of the literature on “nation-building.”

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable