How Do Elites Construct National Identity?

The state has always been an important topic in political science research,and both national identity and nation-building are important parts of the state.How the elite,as the dominant force in nation-building,should successfully construct national identity and ensure the continued development of the state is a question of research value.A case in point is Liberia,where immigrants from the United States led the creation of a nation on the African continent and the True Whig Party,representing Liberians of American descent,ruled for over a century in the development of the country before it collapsed.In this process,how did the Americo-Liberians,a minority group,succeed in building the country,stay in power for a long time and suddenly collapse? An exploration of these questions will help to better understand how elites construct national identity.From past research,it is clear that national identity construction is included in the construction of the state,which is presented in various forms such as publications,war,religion and bureaucracy.In a discussion of Liberia,therefore,a comparative analysis of the history of Liberia must take these perspectives and explore the characteristics of different periods in Liberia’s journey from the colony to the Liberian federation to the Republic of Liberia.During the colonial period,shared experiences and goals gave the American immigrants who came to Liberia a basis for mutual identification.With the opening of the war with the interior,changes in the American colonial association allowed the American immigrants who were the dominant colony to move from fragmentation to unity.The establishment of the Liberian Union could not meet the development needs of Liberia and the threat of the British and French further contributed to the American settlers’ desire for national sovereignty,leading to the eventual birth of the Republic of Liberia.After its establishment,Liberia continued to develop and achieve certain successes,but due to the realities of political participation and centralized relations,there was always a huge difference between indigenous and American Liberians,and the elite failed to make the transition from group to identity,which eventually led to the end of the 100-year rule of the True Whig Party and brought about a serious civil war.The Liberian case study is not an easy one,as each stage of elite action contains a component of promoting national identity construction,but there is also the reality of a hidden communal crisis.There are also a large number of different perspectives on the construction of national identity in previous studies,and it is necessary to review each of these theories in the course of the analysis.Through the analysis of Liberia,previous studies on national identity construction have explained the successes and failures of Liberia from different perspectives.Through the analysis of the nation-building process in Liberia,this paper attempts to further illustrate the need for elites to make good transitions in national identity construction and to achieve different functions at different stages in order to better realise national identity construction,better ensure that the state gains legitimacy and better guarantee the continuous development of the state and society.This paper is an attempt to further illustrate the need for the elite to perform different functions in the construction of national identity,to better ensure the legitimacy of the state and to better guarantee the continuous development of the state and society.