| The dissertation attempts to answer the following questions: Why has religion been a persistent and significant factor in Third World politics? How did Third World countries address the challenge of religious pluralism? How can development theory be reformulated so that religion can be treated as a significant variable? The competing nationalisms thesis argues that managing religious pluralism is an integral part of the post-colonial state-building project and that states seek to manage religious pluralism by imposing a particular metanarrative on society. The competing nationalisms thesis functions both as a typology of nationalisms and as a model of the state-building project. As a typology it argues for three forms of nationalism: secular, theocratic, and semi-secular/ethnic. As a model it draws upon Ian Lustick's three stage model of state-building: incumbency stage, regime stage, and ideological hegemony. It also draws upon James Scott's argument that state-building consists of the imposition of standardization of practice on society. The research design consists of the macro-social comparative history approach applied to the two case studies: Indonesia and Malaysia. Indonesia's metanarrative was secular. Although the Pancasila---Indonesia's official ideology---professed belief in God, it committed the Indonesian state to no one particular religion; the result being a de facto secular state. Malaysia's metanarrative was semi-secular/ethnic. Malaysia's constitution designated Islam---the religion of the core ethnic group (the Malays)---the official religion. A comparative analysis of the two case studies resulted in several findings. One, confirmation of the availability of all three national trajectories for both countries. Two, both states achieved the incumbency stage and the regime stage of state-building, but failed to reach the third stage, ideological hegemony. Three, in both case studies the attempt to impose the metanarrative on society, in conjunction with the disruptive effects of modernization, resulted in the emergence of Islamic nationalism as a rival narrative. The dissertation closes with (1) a discussion how the findings challenge the secular assumptions of major theories of nationalisms, e.g., Ernest Gellner and Benedict Anderson; and (2) a discussion how the findings can enrich and expand the Weberian understanding of the state. |
