Research On Four Interpretations Of Nationalism And Nation State Formation In Europe

In today's world,both developed and developing countries need to re-examine the issue of state building.Focusing on the formation of the nation state can better understand the context of the form of the nation state and the state building in today's world.Historically,Europe first saw the emergence of territorial sovereign states,which then transformed into nation states.This paper focuses on the formation of European nation states,focusing on the problems of nationalism and the formation of European nation states,and theoretically sorting out four interpretations of this problem.The most important representative of modernization interpretation path is Ernest Gellner.Gelner believed that nationalism appeared in the process of the transformation from agricultural society to industrial society,and that the nation state was the product of the industrial society.In general,it is difficult for an agricultural society to have nationalism,while nationalism and the nation state are generated to meet the needs of cultural homogeneity in the industrial society.Charles Tilly and Michael Hecht are the representatives of the state center for interpretation.This interpretation path holds that after the emergence of modern territorial sovereign states in Europe,nationalism is accompanied by the process of modern state ruling mechanism changing from indirect rule to direct rule due to the need of military competition.State elites transform modern territorial states into national states by utilizing nationalism.The most important representative of constructivism interpretation is Benedict Anderson.Anderson argues that national communities emerged because the way people thought about the world had changed,and that the emergence of print capitalism made this way of thinking possible.The representative scholar of power configuration interpretation path is Anderas Wimmer.In Wimmer's interpretation,the emergence of nationalism and the formation of the nation state are closely related to the power configuration,that is,the particular power relationship and alliance network between the state and other political actors are combined with their different ideas about the legitimate political order,thus resulting in different political identities and state forms.This paper studies the four explanatory approaches from three aspects: social change,direct inducement,and the classification of nationalism and nation-state formation.In terms of social changes,the four interpretation focus on the transition from agricultural society to industrial society in modern Europe;The change of state form caused by war;The decline of religion and dynastic system and the emergence of a new concept of time;The change of power relationship between the elite and the masses caused by political modernization.In terms of the reasons for the emergence of nationalism,the four interpretation focus on the mobility of industrial society and the demand for high-level cultural media;In order to promote direct rule and extract social resources,modern states need incentive mechanism;The interaction between printing language,printing goods and capitalist printing market;Under different political modernization conditions,the exchange of resources and power between the elite and the mass has an impact on group alliance,identity belonging and political identity.In terms of the relationship between nationalism and European nation state formation,the four explanatory approaches specifically involve the formation types of nationalism and European nation state and the interaction between nationalism and European nation state.In the future,we should strengthen the dialogue between empirical studies and existing theories to deepen the understanding of the relationship between nationalism and nation state.