The Rise of Nationalism - Essay Example

Running head: Rise of nationalism Rise of nationalism Customer’s Name: Institution: Customer’s Course Tutor’s Name November 12th, 2012. Nationalism means ones dedication to a nation or a nationwide order concerning nation’s rights to undertake its set policies without being influenced by others. According to Audi (2009), nationalism has three categories; extreme, fair and negligible nationalism. In extreme cases of nationalism, the interests of a nation have a preference over interests of normal citizens and the citizens have to abide. In case of conflicts between the interests of a certain country and the interests of the citizens for instance financial prosperity, the interests of a country carries the day. In fair nationalism, the country may have preference but not absolute preference as in dire cases like hunger; the country may overlook some policies and allow some food to its citizens. In minimal nationalism, in national security issues the interests of citizens outweighs the interests of a country or other countries. While globalization means international connection through the exchange of ideas, goods, services, and cultures, to get a deeper understanding of the correlation between nationalism and globalization there is need a focus on some countries. According to Moisio (2006), in Finland nationalism has moved from traditional and language hindrances to political stability. It has been on the frontline in advocating for the education for the majority. It is through nationalism policies that Finnish language was implemented as the county official language. Nationalism in Finland emerged in the eighteenth century through the formation of educational movement that enhanced learning of languages, traditions and the background of Finnish citizens. Although the emergence of this nationalism in the nineteenth century was partly to counter Swedish language to stop dominating the politics and cultures of Finland and avoids assimilation, it also was correlated to globalization. In the early nineteenth century, Finland developed two more nationwide movements; one for Finnish and the other for Swedish language which played an important role during the twentieth century when Finnish state was being founded, therefore these two national movements enhanced connectedness. The publications of literature poems in the nineteenth century helped the country as the poem eventually became Finland national anthem hence; this was an achievement of globalization. There was also the growth of military movement which advocated for the separation of cultures and language which weakened Swedish language speaking. The formation of liberation movement which advocated for changes in freedom of expression, self- rule and economic autonomy was affected greatly by Swedish and Finnish languages conflicts. The formation of Diet movement enabled formation of separate financial system and language movement helped develop globalized school systems. Globalization of Finland with other countries has also helped Finland change from a farming and forest system to an industrialized economy (Moisio 2006). Vayraynen (1999) argues that, formally Finland was a not a globalized society as it used nationalism policies to safeguard its industries growth and implemented the welfare policy and the repercussions witnessed were negative like being ineffective in investment of capital as key decisions were only made by internal circle of management. Globalization of capital markets in 1980s initially resulted in negative performance and almost the collapse of the economy as it was speedily implemented. The policies of Finland failed in managing foreign loan capital and used it unproductively. Finland used its nationalism policy in restricting foreign investment and ownership to protect the home markets until the implementation of legislative policy in the early 1990s. Nowadays foreign investment has been allowed and this nationalism can be said to be a result of globalization of its markets. The globalization of Finnish financial system is associated with its joining of international movements like European Economic Area and European Union. Being an active member of EU market allows free movement of labor, capital and entrepreneurship. According to Varaynen (1999), in Finland, globalization has helped it very much in implementing nationalism policies. Globalization affects a country economy, the public and the traditions but it does not fully control the lives of people. Neither is it the cause of all the problems of a society but some internal aspects contribute to some of the internal problems. Some problems like little progress in technology, low production rates, poor structural changes both in national and regional industries and decline in population and lack of national culture would be experienced despite having a globalized economy. Globalized economy is beneficial in that it allows rise in economic, inventive skills are spread, and good relations exist among different communities and goods and services become cheap. However, the home market is forgotten and might end up in the hands of a corporation. Hungary is a country in Europe, taking it as a case study, we explore the issue of nationalism and testing whether it is connected to globalization. Hungary has reasserted it’s individuality as a kin-state after the regime change that took place in 1990; this is taken in relative to nationwide identity and political community repetitively taking centre period in political life and in the field of nationality legislation. Since the tenth century, the national feeling has been a strong force in Hungary. Europe is seen as a place where nationalism was hindered by the Roman Christianity, this was up until the arrival of Reformation. Reformation allowed the national language to be used in spreading the gospel. The Turkish threat from the south and the surge of Protestantism prompted the beginning of nationalism in Hungary. As a consequence of the French Revolution, nationalism came to force in Europe. Hungary had become an anachronistic state until 1825 and they used Latin as the official language. It was in 1833 that Magyar language was introduced after a struggle with the Vienna government. Magyar language was fully accepted in 1844, it was a very cultivated language. This busted the rise of nationalism in Hungary. As described, globalization is viewed as deepening of modernity and also as post modernity, nationalism cannot be explained independent of globalization. The question running in the mind of many is; has globalization eroded nationalism? This is due to the undoubted fact that nationalism as a consciousness manifested by people in the sense that they belong to a particular country and globalization affects people and state in Hungary. The world at large with Hungary inclusive has people wanting to be independent economically, culturally and politically; a height of globalization. This is making nationalism less important. It is good to note that globalization by itself is not bad. It is the lack of ability to prevent exploitation under the garb of globalization and the failure in measuring up the challenges that are thrown by globalization that are negative. To achieve internationalism, every child in Hungary has to have a dose of nationalism even as he/she embraces globalization. The concept of globalization actually originated from the developed countries. These countries are undoubtedly the ones who practice exclusivist nationalism. Technology and increase in international communication brought about by globalization has greatly affected nationalism. Further the economic relationships between nations and the impact of multi-culture of migration has contributed to less nationalism across the globe. These technologies that are evident across Hungary and in particular the internet are threats to nationalism. In 1960, Marshall McLuhan described the earth as a global village. The increasing development of networks, communication technology and the online world has made this description of the world come true. The community created therefore knows no national boundaries, culture or regions. This greatly affects the thinking of a nationalist, since people across the globe can easily interact virtually with no limits chatting all over the world. Hungary has not been an exemption in the social networking pages like face book and twitter where people share beliefs and ideas. As the internet generally uses English, people in Hungary have to learn the language and this way the people in Hungary can share viewpoints and common values with other people across the world within few minutes. With globalization, there is an increase to mobility. This has greatly increased migration for one can travel many kilometers from Hungary within a few hours or days. This is a factor that has brought people of different cultural background together thus with no doubt a mixture of culture is born. This will as a result led to a multicultural community all over the world, Hungary not left out in this. A development of one single culture that comes out from multiple different cultures is brought to be. This leaves the world with a chance to have a global culture or simply put one world society. This act of globalization is a great threat to the nationalist ideology for this is largely due to the fact that, the belief of a nation state is removed and the importance of common cultural heritage is challenged. The globalization of politics has enabled governments to run in an open and democratic manner. Government as part of a country executes an honest, dynamic and clean course and thus receives a positive feedback from the citizens of Hungary. Consequently, the aspect of economic globalization has led to the opening of the international markets. This has led to increased employment opportunities and foreign exchange. The social-cultural globalization helps in the mimicking of the thinking pattern from the developed nations that help in improving a nation’s progress that will as a result strengthen the sense of nationalism in the nation. In summation, the rise in nationalism in the cited countries is occurring as a reaction to globalization. For instance technology has evolved as a tool that calls for a multicultural society with it, increasingly bringing about interactions through social networking. This erodes nationalism. On the contrary, the same technology is a boost to cohesion between members of a state thus strengthening nationalism. Also in the case of Finland which was formally not globalized but tried to safeguard home market with national policies, it was forced to eventually globalize its market for foreign investment and therefore this was in reaction to globalization. References Audi, R. (2009). Nationalism, Patriotism, and Cosmopolitanism in an Age of Globalization. Journal of Ethics, 13(4), 365-381. Doi: 10.1007/s10892-009-9068-9 Moisio, S. (2006). Competing Geographies of sovereignty, Regionality and Globalization: The politics of EU Resistance in Finland. Routledge Vayraynen, R. (1999). Globalization and societal policy in Finland: Helsinki Publishers. Read More