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Popular Conceptions of Nationhood in Old and New European
Member States: Partial Support for the Ethnic-Civic Framework
Jan Germen Janmaat
Abstract
One of the most influential theories in the study of nationalism has been the ethnic-
East/civic-West framework developed by Hans Kohn. Using the 2002 Eurobarometer
survey on national identity and building on earlier survey studies, this article examines
whether the Kohn framework is valid at the level of popular understandings of nationhood.
It scrutinizes the framework both conceptually - do people define nationhood in civic or
ethnic terms? - and regionally - is the East indeed more ethnic than the West and the West
more civic than the East? It will show that identity markers cluster in a political, a cultural
and an ethnic dimension. Respondents do not see these dimensions as competing sources
of nationhood, however. The article further lends some support for the regional component
of the framework. Lastly, it argues that it is the intensity of national identifications rather
than their qualitative nature (ethnic-civic) that correlates with xenophobia.
Keywords: nationalism; civic-ethnic; West-East; national identity; survey data; attitudes
The sudden occurrence of (sub-state) nationalist sentiments and violent ethnic
conflicts in Central and Eastern Europe after the collapse of communism caught
many scholars by surprise. In accounting for these phenomena, they rediscovered