Reference Type: Journal Article
Author: Robertson, Lawrence R.
Year: 1997
Title: The Constructed Nature of Ethnopolitics
Journal: International Politics
Volume: 34
Issue: 3
Start Page: 265-283.
Language: English
Keywords: General, sociolgy, ethnic identity, interethnic relationships, minority organizations, war, nationalism
Abstract(RO): The author argues that there is an emerging scholarly consensus that ethnic groups and nations are constructed, as is nationalism, ethnic conflict, and its accommodation. Further, these groups and their forms of political action, considered together as ethnopolitics, are not inherent to world politics or artificially constructed by politicians. A literature review explores primordial, instrumental and constructivist paradigms. Each perspective is then examined in a variety of cases based on the historical record of recent politics, for example the French and Romanian nations, Scottish nationalism, and ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia. In all cases, primordial and instrumental approaches yield incomplete information and/or distorted understandings. Constructivism permits an assessment of ethnopolitics as both real and imagined.