Nationalism, Democracy And Modern State Construction

Nationalism and Democratism are two main streams wounding through contemporary world. They interweave in various country’s history of modernization: sometimes in harmony, being complementary to each other; other times in conflict, being seemingly incompatible. This article argues that the term “democracy” is to be anatomized into two parts in modern context, with each parts’ relation to modern national country be studied, to really understand what the utility Nationalism and Democratism are in modern country’s construction, as well as the relationship between them, and study their interaction to modern nation. The article discusses the topic in three parts.The first chapter discusses two ideas of modern country’s construction: modern country of Nationalism and that of Liberalism, and describe their none-self-consistency and their complementary relationship. The second chapter discusses the dual connotation of the term “democracy”, in the sense of public participation and in the sense of constitutional spirit respectively, then speculate that the relationship and relative statue of the two connatation are the cause of different modernization mode in different countries. The third chapter verifies the speculation in the second chapter by analyzing certain examples set into three groups in comparison, including Hungary and German Empire, Prussia Kingdom and France, and Britain and Norway.