Political Culture and the Making of Modern Nation-States

This book focuses on transformations of political culture from times past to future-present. It defines the meaning of political culture and explores the cultural values and institutions of kinship communities and dynastic intermediaries, including chiefdoms and early states. It systematically examines the rise and gradual universalization of modern sovereign nation-states. Contemporary debates concerning nationality, nationalism, citizenship, and hyphenated identities are engaged. The authors recount the making of political culture in the American nation-state and look at the processes of internal colonialism in the American experience, examining how major ethnic, sectarian, racial, and other distinctions arose and congealed into social and cultural categories. The book concludes with a study of the Holocaust, genocide, crimes against humanity, and the political cultures of violation in post-colonial Rwanda and in racialized ethno-political conflicts in various parts of the world. Struggles over legitimacy in nation-building and state-building are at the heart of this new take on the important role of political culture. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 11 Introduction 13 Part I Transformations of Political Culture from Times Past to Future Present 16 1 Political Culture 17 Key Concepts: Political Culture 20 Alternate Perspectives: Identity 34 2 Kinship Communities as Political Cultures 37 Key Concepts: Legitimacy 40 Alternate Perspectives: Male and Female Circumcision 45 3 Dynastic Intermediaries: Culture and Governance between Kinship and States 51 Alternate Perspectives: Political Culture and Economic Development 71 Key Concepts: Self-Determination 76 4 Modern Sovereign Nation-States: Nationality, Citizenship, and Hyphenated Identities 79 Alternate Perspectives: Sovereignty 94 Key Concepts: Sovereignty, Nonintervention, and Human Rights 97 Part II The Making of the Political Culture of the American Nation-State 104 5 Internal Colonialism and the American Experience 105 Key Concepts: Citizenship 109 Alternate Perspectives: Ethnicity, Nationality, and Nation-Building 129 6 Groups as Identity Objects in American Political Culture 133 Key Concepts: Group Rights 143 Alternate Perspectives: Feminist IR Theory 148 Part III Global Colonialism and the Making of the Modern Nation-State 154 7 Colonialist and Postcolonial Political Culture 155 Key Concepts: Failed States 163 Alternate Perspectives: Failed State Index 188 8 Ethno-Political Violence and Subnational Conflict 196 Alternate Perspectives: Ethnic Conflict 198 Key Concepts: Nationalism 200 Part IV The Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes against Humanity: Political Culture in Violation of Personhood 226 9 The Holocaust 227 Key Concepts: Genocide 230 Alternate Perspectives: Nationality, Nationalism, and Citizenship 238 10 Nativism and Genocide in Postcolonial Rwanda 247 Alternate Perspectives: Domestic Political Conflict and Failed States 253 Key Concepts: Responsibility to Protect (R2P) 260 Part V Nation-Building and State-Building: Future Challenges in the Present 264 11 The Struggle over Legitimacy: A Case Study of Afghanistan 265 Key Concepts: Federations, Confederations, and Unitary Governments 273 Alternate Perspectives: Anthropology and Social Psychology 278 Conclusion 283 Notes 289 Bibliography 298 Index 305 About the Authors 318 Pt. 1. Transformations of political culture from times past to future present -- pt. 2. The making of the political culture of the American nation-state -- pt. 3. Global colonialism and the making of the modern nation-state -- pt. 4. The holocaust, genocide, and crimes against humanity : political culture in violation of personhood -- pt. 5. Nation-building and state-building : future challenges in the present