Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rousseau was a key influence in the thinking of the French Revolution. His best known work was The Social Contract.
Rousseau believed that in the absence of a monarchy, the nation can bind people together. The nation is organic For Rousseau, nationalism, freedom, and good government went hand-in-hand.
The key contribution Rousseau made to nationalist thinking was in the concept of the general will; interpreted to mean the collective will of the nation. This has influenced liberal nationalism in the sense that the people should have popular sovereignty through republican democracy. It has also influenced radical nationalism in the form of Nazis in Germany and embodied in the idea of an all-powerful single ruler.
Johann von Herder
Herer has largely influenced conservative nationalism.
He was part of a revolutionary reaction to the rational principles The Enlightenment. He was influenced by his motivation to unite the German people as a singular state.
For Herder, the world is naturally divided into separate nations. National culture is developed through historical experience and Language. His idea of the Volksgeist was influenced by Rousseau’s general will.
Herder may be associated with more radical forms of nationalism, as the idea of the Volksgeist may seem racist. He would refute this on the grounds that he was less concerned with the biological divisions among humans than with cultural distinctions.
Giuseppe Mazzini
An Italian nationalist, often portrayed as the ‘prophet’ of Italian unification. Mazzini practiced a form of L… nationalism fused with a belief in the nation as a cultural community with the principles of liberal republicanism.
Nations are effectively sublimated individuals endowed with the right to self-government, a right to which all nations are equally entitled.
Mazzini was one of the earliest thinkers to link nationalism to the prospect of perpetual peace.
Charles Maurras
Maurras was a key exponent of right-wing nationalism and an influence on fascism.
His idea of integral nationalism emphasised the organic unity of the nation, fusing a clearly illiberal rejection of individualism with a stress of hierarchy and traditional institutions.
His insular and exclusionary nationalism articulated hostility towards, among others, Protestants, Jews, foreigners, democracy, and rationalism.
Marcus Garvey
Garvey was an early advocate of black nationalism.
He placed a particular emphasis on establishing black pride.
Garvey’s vision of Africa as a ‘homeland’ provided the basis for a pan-African philosophy.
Although his call for a return to Africa to ‘redeem’ it from European colonialism was largely ignored, his views provided the basis for the later Black Power movement.