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Greenfeld Nationalism

Decent Essays

In her article, Greenfeld examines the future of the nation-state in a comparative manner between the Western and the South-East Asian nation-states (2011, p. 5). Also, Greenfeld creates a relationship between the concepts of globalization, nationalism, nation-state, and modernity (2011, p. 5). In her conclusion, Greenfeld states that the nationalism that brought the West to world domination is at the same time bringing the West’s dominance to and end. In fact, nationalism is the driving force behind the competition between China and India as well as the future dominance of both countries of the global system. On the other hand, Greenfeld also concludes that the emergence of both China and India means that the modern nation-state will continue to exist through “impersonal and representative government” in both India and China (2011, p. 1). Therefore, I argue that Greenfeld’s explanation of the globalization of nationalism and the future of the …show more content…

According to Atul Kohli, nation-states are legitimate states that govern effectively and have dynamic industrial economies (2004, p.1). In other words, a modern nation-state is one which legitimacy is derived from joining the political entity of a state with the cultural and ethnic entities in order for the government to rule, grow the economy, and maintain the sovereignty of the state. Also, part of being modern means that a nation-state must have an impersonal government that represents the will of the people (Greenfeld, 2011, p. 8). Thus, Greenfeld states that representative government is the personification of nationalism which makes every state a modern nation-state. To be more precise, the globalization of nationalism in terms of a government that represents the will of the people is the reason behind the emergence of China and India as modern nation-states that are economic

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