Pierre Van Den Berghe's Theory Of National Identity

Pierre van den Berghe emphasizes the role of ethnicity and kinship involving family biological ties to members of an ethnic group as being an important element of national identity. He identifies common descent as the basis of the formation of different ethnic groups. This is logical because one can only be born into an ethnic group and can’t change his ethnicity. He also notes that solidarity and unity among the members of an ethnic group does not always require genetic relatedness, but can also form through imagined genetic relatedness which may or may not be true. Functionalist interpretation of this perspective postulates some advantages to this theory of genetics playing an important role. It claims that having a genetic relation or believing in one, defines who is acceptable in that group and who is not. This in turn

This form of nationalism derives from the Risorgimento (meaning “the resurgence” in Italian) which is the movement for the unification of Italy. Integral nationalism, on the other hand, results after a nation has already achieved independence. Hitler’s Third Reich and Mussolini’s Italy are good examples of this. Integral nationalism is usually characterizes by anti-indiviualism, statism, extremism and imperialism. Integral nationalism shares many similarities with Fascism, another form of extreme nationalism.

Civic nationalism is also known as liberal nationalism. Liberal nationalism defines the nation as an association of people who identify themselves as belonging to the nation, who have equal and shared political rights, and allegiance to similar political procedures. In this case, the core identity of the nation is not ethnicity. There is usually no common ethnic ties in such nations. Civic nationalism is claimed to be in consonance with the principles of democracy, equality, freedom, tolerance and so