The core ideas and principles of nationalism, the differences between liberal, conservative, expansionist and post-colonial nationalism, and the views of the key thinkers Rousseau, Herder, Mazzini, Maurras and Garvey.

What this dot point is asking

AQA wants you to explain the core ideas of nationalism (the nation, self-determination, nation-state, culturalism and racialism), distinguish its main types, and apply the ideas of the five key thinkers: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Johann Gottfried von Herder, Giuseppe Mazzini, Charles Maurras and Marcus Garvey. Nationalism is one of the optional non-core ideologies in Paper 2, Section B, examined with a 9-mark "explain and analyse three" and a 25-mark essay.

Core ideas of nationalism

The central idea is the nation itself, a group bound by some combination of shared language, culture, history, religion, territory and a sense of common identity. Nationalists divide over whether the nation is essentially cultural or ethnic (organic, rooted in language and heritage, as Herder argued) or civic or political (a community of citizens bound by shared values and consent, as Rousseau and Mazzini argued). From the nation flows self-determination: the claim that each nation has the right to govern itself rather than be ruled by others, which fuelled both 19th-century unification movements and 20th-century decolonisation. The ideal political form is the nation-state, in which political and national boundaries coincide, giving a people sovereign control over their own affairs. Culturalism stresses preserving and celebrating a distinct national culture. In its most extreme forms, nationalism shades into racialism and chauvinism, asserting the superiority of one nation or race over others. Nationalism is unusual in that it attaches to other ideologies, producing liberal, conservative, socialist, expansionist and anti-colonial variants.

Types of nationalism

Liberal nationalism, the earliest form, links the nation to liberal values: self-determination, popular sovereignty, constitutional government and a harmonious international order of self-governing states (the vision behind Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points). Conservative nationalism is more defensive, valuing the nation as a source of tradition, identity, social cohesion and order, often emerging when national identity feels threatened. Expansionist (integral) nationalism is intense and chauvinistic, asserting national greatness and superiority, glorifying war and conquest, and often resting on racial or ethnic exclusivity (its extreme expression is fascist ultranationalism). Anti-colonial and post-colonial nationalism developed in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean as a movement for liberation from European empire, frequently blending nationalism with socialism or with assertions of racial pride and cultural revival.

The key thinkers

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 to 1778): his theory of popular sovereignty and the general will treats the nation as a self-governing community of citizens whose collective will is sovereign; a foundation for civic and liberal nationalism.
• Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744 to 1803): the founder of cultural nationalism; each nation possesses a unique spirit, the Volksgeist, expressed through its language, customs and history, so culture, not the state, defines the nation.
• Giuseppe Mazzini (1805 to 1872): the leading liberal nationalist; nations have both a right and a duty to unify and free themselves (as in Italian unification, the Risorgimento), and free nations would form a peaceful brotherhood.
• Charles Maurras (1868 to 1952): the theorist of integral nationalism; an exclusive, reactionary, anti-liberal nationalism that places the nation above the individual and was deeply hostile to democracy and outsiders.
• Marcus Garvey (1887 to 1940): advocate of black nationalism and pan-Africanism; he promoted racial pride, the unity and self-determination of people of African descent, and a "back to Africa" vision against colonial domination.