Nationalism And Its Illness:Political Violence

There has been a strong correlation between nationalism and political violence throughout the years. What is important is the extent to which nation-based conflicts regarding religion, language and ethnicity differences are causing statewide conflicts. However, by examining these causes such as nationalism, we should not underestimate other factors such as inequality and class conflicts which can play significant roles in forming state violence. Thus, it is better first to discover the true sense of state violence, its predicted and observed causes and then illustrate the phenomenon by giving some major examples from the real world such as the Irish and Lebanon interstate conflicts. So it is very crucial to ask the question: “How do conflicts derived from nationalistic ideologies arise from complex combinations of ethnic strength, class, inequality, political opportunity, mobilization processes or international interventions?” The last question to answer will be the future of nationalism, will there be an end to the imagined idea of nationalism in this smalling global world or are we going to witness strengthening of the power of nation-states?

rom the black and white perspective seems to be not logical. Globalization can both cause the weakening and strengthening of the state by those fundamental changes. On the one hand, the state can be seen as the vehicle for the global spread of economic and technological progress, but on the other, it can be presented as the source of violence and repression and maybe a fundamental barrier to the unification of the world. (Smith 1992,256) When we look at political violence, we can figure out that in political violence there exists a rational aim in committing the crime. It is most of the times defined as the use of actual physical violence or serious threats of violence to achieve political goals (Danziger, 2001, 258). Political violence often forms its base on separation. It feeds on intolerance by making race, ethnicity, religion, language, class, doctrine, and nationality, decisive in order to change the order. It separates actors and audience, victims and voyeurs, but then reunites them for its own political benefits and aims (Apter1996, 5). Most of the time it is done for a specific purpose such as reordering the existing political regime, redefining justice and equity or even achieving independence or territorial autonomy (Apter 1996).

The history of violence in Spain is a complex one. It has its ideological as well as its ethnic sources. The real development of ETA( Euskadi Ta Askatasuna-Basque country and Freedom) began during the Franco dictatorship. Is it surprising to observe that as Spanish society’s democracy proceeded, it became more violent and more separatist? ETA’s political violence should be viewed from three different ways. It is both an effort to define or express the nation, a desire for a social movement and lastly to make it a revolutionary one. When Basque nationalism is thought, these three dimensions would be helpful to understand the process both historically and analytically. (Wieviorka, 1996,29)

In the 1930’s, the one who appealed to this and took advantage was Adolf Hitler in the process of uniting Germans and ethnic cleansing Jews. It is not surprising to see neo-nazism process going on in Germany, not only Jews this time if left, but also all other ethnics. So, as Weaver also notes, the master race(!) belong to a larger history of Germany as a community, is not only directed against Jews, but other immigrants from Turkey, Iran, Russia, Poland, Vietnam and other places in Eastern Europe (Weaver, 1996,129) It’s obvious that neo-Nazi movement can produce such large reactions and fears, and as long as the knowledge of history remains, the guilt will remain and it will stay as a ghost to today’s democracy. When looked at the statistics, we can see that some forms of political violence have existed since the West German state was founded in 1949. The 1970’s total damage was estimated as 250 million Deutsche Marks. (Finn, 1991,202).

It is certain that contrary to revolutions, and more evil than them, separatist movements have been one of the most significant issues that has been debated over the centuries. When we enter into the subject of separatism and the struggle for autonomy of a certain group, ‘nationalism’ and its consequences should be discussed and analyzed. That’s because as Danziger denotes:” At the heart of most nation-based violence, there exists a struggle for the nationality groups right to control their own political and cultural destiny”.(Danziger, 2001,268) So it is better first to understand the concept of nationalism and its implications and then to analyze his

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