Editing Nationalism (section)

== Political science ==
Many [[political science|political scientists]] have theorized about the foundations of the modern nation-state and the concept of sovereignty. The concept of nationalism in political science draws from these theoretical foundations. Philosophers like [[Machiavelli]], [[John Locke|Locke]], [[Hobbes]], and [[Rousseau]] conceptualized the state as the result of a "[[social contract]]" between rulers and individuals.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756223/obo-9780199756223-0151.xml?rskey=ZyiKL0&result=121 |title=The Nature of the State|last=Miller|first=Max|date=31 March 2016|website=Oxford Bibliographies|access-date=18 May 2017|archive-date=3 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803090437/http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756223/obo-9780199756223-0151.xml?rskey=ZyiKL0&result=121|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Max Weber]] provides the most commonly used definition of the state, "that human community which successfully lays claim to the monopoly of legitimate physical violence within a certain territory".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Weber: Political Writings|last=Weber|first=Max|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1994|location=Cambridge|pages=309–331}}</ref> According to [[Benedict Anderson]], nations are "[[Imagined Communities]]", or socially constructed institutions.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book|last=Anderson|first=Benedict|title=Imagined Communities: Reflections on the origins and spread of nationalism|publisher=Verso Books|year=2006|pages=48–56}}</ref>

Many scholars have noted the relationship between [[state-building]], [[war]], and nationalism. John Etherington argues nationalism is inherently exclusionary and thus potentially violent,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Etherington |first1=John |title=Nationalism, Exclusion and Violence: A Territorial Approach |journal=Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism |date=2007 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=24–44 |doi=10.1111/j.1754-9469.2007.tb00160.x |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1754-9469.2007.tb00160.x |access-date=20 February 2024}} p.25</ref> while [[Jeffrey Herbst]] posits that external threats can foster nationalist sentiment: "External threats have such a powerful effect on nationalism because people realize in a profound manner that they are under threat because of who they are as a nation; they are forced to recognize that it is only as a nation that they can successfully defeat the threat".<ref name="herbst-war-and-state">{{Cite journal|last=Herbst |first=Jeffrey|date=Spring 1990|title=War and the State in Africa |journal=International Security|volume=14|issue=4|pages=117–139 |doi=10.2307/2538753|jstor=2538753|s2cid=153804691}}</ref> With increased external threats, the state's extractive capacities increase. He links the lack of external threats to countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, post-independence, to weak state nationalism and [[state capacity]].<ref name="herbst-war-and-state" /> [[Barry Posen]] argues that nationalism increases the intensity of war, and that states deliberately promote nationalism with the aim of improving their military capabilities.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Posen|first=Barry |date=Fall 1993 |title=Nationalism, the Mass Army, and Military Power|doi=10.2307/2539098|journal=International Security|volume=18 |issue=2|pages=80–124 |jstor=2539098|s2cid=154935234}}</ref> Most new nation-states since 1815 have emerged through decolonization.<ref name=":9" />

Adria Lawrence has argued that nationalism in the colonial world was spurred by failures of colonial powers to extend equal political rights to the subjects in the colonies, thus prompting them to pursue independence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lawrence |first=Adria K.|date=2013|title=Imperial Rule and the Politics of Nationalism: Anti-Colonial Protest in the French Empire |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/imperial-rule-and-the-politics-of-nationalism/C25DB67F2AABEA1097273FF7D0518556 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1107037090 |access-date=20 February 2022 |archive-date=17 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220217203231/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/imperial-rule-and-the-politics-of-nationalism/C25DB67F2AABEA1097273FF7D0518556 |url-status=live}}</ref> Michael Hechter has argued similarly that "peripheral nationalisms" formed when empires prevented peripheral regions from having autonomy and local rule.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hechter |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O3jnCwAAQBAJ |title=Containing Nationalism |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0198297420 |language=en}}</ref>