Popular Conceptions of Nationhood in Old and New European

similar levels on the cultural dimension but differing ones on the political
dimension, with Western countries exhibiting higher values of political national
pride than Eastern states. Although labelling the second dimension as cultural
seems rather far-fetched, clustering as it does items as diverse as armed forces,
history, and achievements in sport, arts and science, the East-West difference on
the more coherent political dimension is noteworthy as it is in line with the
traditional ethnic-East/civic-West view.

Unlike the aforementioned studies, the fourth study using the ISSP data source
(Shulman 2002) did not investigate whether the items of the survey clustered in one
or more dimensions. Focusing on the same indicators as Jones and Smith and using
an additional question on the sharing of traditions,³ Shulman assumed beforehand
that the indicators born, citizenship, lived, laws and feel reflected a civic
understanding of nationhood and the items language, religion and traditions a
cultural sense of national identity. He took eight countries from the survey to
represent the West and an equal number to represent the East. Shulman’s main
finding was that there were as many indicators contesting the civic-West/ethnic-
East argument as supporting it. In addition, the items that supported the argument
showed much larger differences within each of the regions than between the two
regions. These findings led Shulman (2002, p. 583) to conclude that:

Imperial and communist rule have not pushed Eastern European nationhood in a
strongly cultural direction while greatly weakening civicness. And whereas most of
the West has a long tradition of democracy and relatively strong and stable political
institutions, cultural conceptions of nationhood are alive and well.

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