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Uninational Homes: Right-Wing Nationalism

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Liberal and Illiberal Nationalisms

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Abstract

There are forms of nationalism that are not centered on the project of transforming a homeland into a state. They focus instead on the task of transforming the homeland itself. Homeland is approached as the abode of a particular nation, the titular nation, and no one else. Such nationalism is reactionary, fundamentalist, and right-wing because it invokes a mythical nation residing in a mythical home untouched by migration of peoples — a process that is as old as human history. The type of nationalism that assigns homeland to the titular nation — the insiders — is, ironically, espoused today by outsiders, those located on the periphery of their societies. Such nationalism attacks the modern state principally because it does not provide for an exclusive religious or spiritual home. The radical right proposes a fundamentalist, primordial, purist, uninational version of the state in place of the modern secular, democratic, multicultural state. It therefore undertakes militant action and organizes movements in opposition to what is seen as a hegemonic state.

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Notes

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  1. Tulane University, New Orleans, USA

    Ray Taras

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© 2002 Ray Taras

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Taras, R. (2002). Uninational Homes: Right-Wing Nationalism. In: Liberal and Illiberal Nationalisms. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230596405_5

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