Development of Nationalism as a Form of Multicultural Communication

Scholars frequently embark to explain the contemporary forms of communication by giving examples with the role of radio, newspapers, television, journalism, politics and science. During this academic process, the focus often falls on the role of social democratic perspective and the circumstances that provoke national conflict. The last two fields are seen as double standards which coordinate the world since the establishment of monarchies and republics (Fallaci 2004: 19).

Within this scientific context, the communication plays a multidimensional role. It may attach to its agenda such topics as citizens` rights, the development of welfare state, the lack of international or local political and social understandings. It may also lay stress on the mass media and its ability to highlight the existence of cultural and ideological differences around the globe. However, this article will research a topic which is not obscure to the academic sphere but which seems to gain popularity since the last decades.

Nationalism today became not only a symbol of personal choice or part of a certain local cultural feature. The notion grew up in many European countries so to become a key element of political activism, to emphasis on the resistance against governmental injustice and to emphasize the defence of major civil values.

What is Nationalism?

According to Plato, the human condition of being in condition of conflict exists and it will always exist since it is driven by such human motives as passion, contention and need of personal proving (Fallaci 2004: 20). The philosopher claims that each proper act is a form of conflict against someone and he gives examples with the subsistence of professional concurrence and the elaboration of political strategies during the development of world`s international relations. So how can be defined the nationalism which emerged in Europe recently? Is it a new form of communication inspired by the multicultural enrichment in the continent or a natural human behaviour?

Unfortunately, philosophical questions as such are not relevant to the empirical objectives, which can be analysed through the implementation of experiment or observation (Tamir, Yael et al. 1998: 65). Nationalism itself is a contradictory realm. Some critical approaches suggest that this is a philosophical or social phenomenon that does not allow theorization. Other academics relate the subject to the political discourse and the exposition of justice, cultural relations and sociology.

For instance, the British historian Elie Kedourie claims that nationalism symbolizes the failure of certain philosophers to explore and redefine the structure of the world. The notion is compared with a chaotic act of passion and a tug of war against reason. It is a revolt against cause and it symbolises the people against the individual and the mass. This argumentation continues by claiming that nationalism simply entails the application of the principle of popular sovereignty to the nation, so it does not make any sense to formulate a theory that could explain, guide and structure the plurality of national expressions.

Moreover, the historians explain that typical for nationalists is to stuggle with specific or local issues and to identify themselves with protectionism of nation`s history, culture and identity (Tamir, Yael et al. 1998: 70). The populists` sense of uniqueness differs from socialists, democrats or liberals who are following certain universal values and policies. The Irish academic Conor Cruise O`Brien attempts to prove this statement through the developed in Christian wold understanding of being chosen. A fact is that this particular spiritual comprehension is also shared by the Jewish people and many Islamic nations such as Iraq, Iran and Egypt.

However, the nationalism can be related to a certain theoretical meaning based on the concept of justice and morality, contravene some scholars (Tamir, Yael et al.1998: 75). Ideologically, the nationalism defends the demands raised by discriminated minorities and indigenous people. This specificity is grounded on the assumption that the national rights are fundamental and applicable to all nations. Unfortunately, this comprehension that contemporary nationalism emblematizes the justice or the lack of it pose deep philosophical doubt regarding the clear explanation of national right and if it is a consequence of certain moral claims or a consequence of nationalism (Brilmayer 1995: 7).

The determination of injustice also depends of very variable characteristics such as the nature of the national group, the type of political measures and their ability to participate in the political system. Nationalism does not cover the whole of the moral field simply because group demands grounded in a theory of nationalism must be set against other moral considerations (Tamir, Yael et al.1998: 77). After all, whether certain civil demands become in conflict with other social expectation, this is a precognition of a national decline.

Hence, Plato has been right about the confrontational nature of human kind. However, the topic of this article is not to defend or to disprove his words. Let see how the nationalism, a theory or not, reflects on multicultural communication.

The Multicultural Evolution and Cosmopolitanism

At the bottom of each civil society stands the need of national progress and improvement. Sooner or later, these requirements transform the classical understanding of traditional identities and settled social roles by encouraging the individual liberty and autonomy. Outcome of this emancipation is defined as cosmopolitanism. The notion explains the process of social transition of emancipated individuals who do not see their options as limited or established by membership into particular ethnic, linguistic or religious group even if they are born into it (Kymlicka 2001: 204).

Furthermore, the expansion of Cosmopolitanism which is often described as an act of increasing individual exploration of options available outside the ethno-cultural groups and which lead to a lost of traditional political importance and development of universal communication has inspired the small cultural groups to become easily assimilated by the larger ones in the sense of creating a single cosmopolitan society. As a result, the side-effect which appears against this alternation is the nationalism. Besides, it will not be a mistake to claim that the conflict between the two social phenomena illustrates a very significant stage of contemporary multicultural communication by expanding the initial meaning of democracy, freedom and identity.

Still, the ideological opposition within cosmopolitans and nationalist seems a little bit exaggerated (Kymlicka 2001: 205). The stand point of confrontation with the nationalist is not the favouritism of national identities in political sphere but the status of national minorities or the ethno-national groups and their request for self-government. The cosmopolitans do not predict a resilience of national identities. Their perspective involves the idea that the smaller groups will be well disposed towards assimilation into larger groups, as long as their individual rights are honoured and that this process of unification is a natural act of creation a universal language and a single cosmopolitan society. Conversely, the nationalists see in this diaspora`s self-determination and a threat to national priorities.

Sadly, the cosmopolitan dream of universal language did not find the same social support as the belief that the national identities need protection. It became clear that the development of common society would not lead to the formation of a common culture (Kymlicka 2001: 207). As a result, the national minorities have continued keeping and cultivating their self-governing societies each with its specific hierarchical structure, language and philosophy. The notion minority nationalism started to symbolize ethnic maintenance without being able to synchronize itself with the modern understanding of autonomy and individual freedom. The faith in stable international development based on multicultural communication became uncertain.

Media, Politics and Nationalism

A key merit for the present multicultural complexity has the democratic transformation that influenced each national institutional system in Europe. The process included a change in traditional politics from locally concentrated to party and socially organized, centralization of mediated political communication into both political and public life and civil participation into politics of other legislative aspects such as voting, governmental legitimacy and party identification. The last transition allowed nationalism to develop regarding its own level of connection with media processes (Bennett & Entman 2001: 9).

Right from the beginning, the access to communication is one of the main guarantees to power and equality in democratic nations (Bennett & Entman 2001: 10). Individuals communicate to declare their interests and to be aware of government activities and how they affect those interests. The political communication does not simply have the power to obscure the social values behind institutional decisions but also has the ability to involve people in political decisions. As regards the case of nationalism, the citizens understand their deception and exclusion from the governmental work during the creation of new democracy, so their feelings regarding the governmental legitimacy come under question. In return, many nations begin to look at the elected authorities with growing scepticism.

Both communication and media have the responsibility to provide all types of information, interest formation and satisfaction between the public and political sphere. Within all forms, the policy field represents such shape of area in which ideas and feelings communicate to, from and about conflicts, society, institutions and orders. Surprisingly, the public discussions about gender and social behaviour including migration and national groups have been not initially presented into the political sphere. So how the nationalist parties achieved to highlight these issues?

Although the construction of democratic centrality was built towards the contemporary dynamics of media organizations and institutional structures, the nation as a symbol of international comparative measure was depended on certain limitations like transnationalism, minority`s media cultures and hybrid publics (Volkmer 2012: 114). This tendency exists even today and it is expressed by limitedness of the national model and by frequent restriction the assessment of new forms of international public connections. The recent problem with minorities consists in their settlement within series of networks in relation to their transnational public position (the country of origin and the country of residence). Furthermore, if we try to refer this sort of net positioning to the concept of multidimensional communication, it can be seen that the creation of various communication structures within each national territory leads to formation of national groups with huge identity space concerning their hegemonic national identity and subnational communal consiousness (Volkmer 2012: 115).

The emergence of disbalance in socio-cultural politics and national identity values is mainly reflected by the modern mass media culture within the nation state. Here, the stress does not simply fall in globalization and network positioning of minorities as conflict areas between local within the global. The contemporary dynamic international connections develop new models of public sphere that design a phenomenon of compressed communicative spaces towards migrant groups. The nation centrality put aside the mass media structures by giving a priority to mostly national media formations. The last ones are steadily incorporated into national policies such as radio, national television and newspapers. Part of these classic forms of communication actually facilitate the spread of populist ideology by requiring that minorities` protection of traditions necessarily involves an abdication of civil duties and ignorance towards national authorities.

The Far-Right Political Parties in Europe

If we claim that the emergence of the European Union is a form of cosmopolitism then the far-right parties are the representatives of nationalism (Wilson & Hainsworth 2012: 4). Despite the negative impacts that the European universalism could not prevent (increasing income gaps between rich and poor, financial and economic crisis and unemployment), it still seems that the national disaffection generally falls on such cultural agendas as migration and ethnic differences. As though, the existence of Roma, Blacks, Muslim, Jews, gays and lesbians performs an ideological incompatibility towards the rest of the population. In fact, the growing political success of the far-right or populist parties in countries like France, Finland and Denmark also inspired quite intriguing scientific excitement among researchers regarding the transformations of democratic life in Europe. The extreme parties and their functions become one of the main forms of the multicultural communication within the context of nationalism. They achieved to design and establish such form of social opinion that won public adherence in many states since the last two decades.

Initially, the far-right organizations, just like nationalism, are forms of political consequence that has emerged after the collapse of old communist parties. Generally these nationalist parties have three key characteristics: nativism or the combination of xenophobia, populism or anti-elitism and authoritarianism (Wilson & Hainsworth 2012: 5). Their hostility to immigration and Islam is a result of the ideological understanding that certain minorities have a cultural identity which cannot be integrated in the liberal societies, so they are incompatible to any democratic values. The nationalist`s symbolic attitude towards Muslims or they/them who are the reason of intolerance to us, the society, occurred the idea that the foreigners` presence limits the development of national socio-economic welfare in Europe.

It was explained that the democratic transformation leaded to free public access to institutional and governmental life in nations. During the same period, the mainstream parties became unable to reorganize their policy and practice and to satisfy the multiple and diverse demands of the electorate. This leaded to evolution of new national parties that succeeded to exploit the niches in their party-political systems. The result of this process was proved by major governmental success. The Austrian Freedom Party received 26.9 per cent and 52 seats in the 1999 parliamentary election, the Northern League won 8.3 per cent and 60 seats in the 2008 parliamentary election and the French Front National achieved 16.9 per cent of the votes in the 2002 presidential elections (Wilson & Hainsworth 2012: 8). Furthermore, the Flemish far-right party Vlaams Belang became the largest party in the Flemish Parliament with 24.2 per cent of the vote in 2004 and it was followed by the extreme Norwegian Progress Party record of 22.9 per cent and 41 seats in the national elections of 2009 and by the Hungarian nationalist Movement for a Better Hungary that got 16.7 per cent support in 2010.

In their core, the far-right parties have a common political structure and follow identical philosophical discourse. Their growing potential in the continent was successful due to their ability to influence the political mainstream in each nation. The immigration and European integration`s subjects were challenges, which during the same period, have provided a chance for new political alternatives and perspectives. The role of the media intensively facilitated the far-right popularity. The image of new political children who`s priorities are strongly related to the problems with immigration and Islam found its perfect place into the media stream. How this affected the political communication in Europe?

Reasons for the Nationalists` Progress

There is no single reason than can be proclaimed as a cardinal cause for the populist` advance in Europe (Wilson & Hainsworth 2012: 17). Nationalism is a product of the conflicts between post-industrial society and bourgeoisie and working class` material interest. What distinguishes the extreme parties from the rest political formations is their ambition to maintain togetherness within the group and to present in front of the audience strong charismatic leaders. These general aspects have paved the road of far- rights concerning the access to local, national and European governmental structures. The nationalist parties were always trying to be politically active for new opportunities rather than to play the role of recipients and passive observers. The cause of their success is highly related to the ability to organise, to take opportunities and to explore the niches in their own party-political systems.

However, if we shift the focus to more common and multangular level, it can be seen that the nationalist political flourishing is not related only to history and democratization. The far-rights` development is also linked to the evolution of centre left European parties after 1990 or since the moment when the New Labour in Great Britain and the Social Democratic Party in Germany which have confirmed the existence of third, central way between left and right wing that would foresee the acceptance of neo-liberal globalisation (Wilson & Hainsworth 2012: 18).

Surely, there is also a regional and economic side behind the far-right extremists` success. The world crisis from 2008 put the social democrats into crucial moment of governmental disability. This political destabilisation had felt mainly in such European countries as Portugal, Greece, Spain, Italy and Ireland which have been ruled by fascist, dictators and authoritarians than in stable welfare states with universal societies like Sweden, Norway and Denmark. This inspired massive public preference to protect the nation and to limit the international cultural influence.

The populist parties did not win the majority of European electorate by promulgating certain economic and governmental platforms but with civil propaganda against minorities. The vision of an immigrant who steals the job of the unemployed native worker found favourable environment at time of social uncertainty. Furthermore, for the far -right groups, the topics related to crisis, institutional and national collapse are all parts of the elitarian liberal-left plan of multiculturalism that are not connected to the ordinary citizen problems.

In addition, the role of the media also assisted the far-rights` political progress. From one side, the nationalism represents the pressure point which the media uses to mediate with government and institutions. From other, the populist parties find a clear arena to express themselves as new political power and their core issues regarding Islam and immigration through the media` attention (Wilson & Hainsworth 2012: 19).

The media removes the barriers of entry into the government by giving the opportunity for new parties to spread their beliefs across the public sphere. Far-right parties with lower electoral support have begun to benefit from media communications because they have equilibrated their financial weaknesses with public establishment. Moreover, the focus of mass media on the human being as such reflected to both political leaders and media recipients. The creation of cult around a certain leader`s personality fits perfectly into the media`s vision of grandiosity, spectacularity and high public rating. Not lastly, the use of Internet as a conventional media within the nationalist`s lines makes easier the spread of intolerance against universalism and nationalism.

Future perspectives?

The political universalism and individual independence are the two major objectives which are carefully guarded by nations. Among them, national communities demonstrate variable degrees of self-consciousness which influence the character of their demands.

Indeed, nations contain tensions and conflicts, partly expressed through the clash between individualism and traditionalism that requires social transformation. The transition of the state into a purely administrative device which co-ordinates the policies of different national groups faced the minorities` desideration to keep their cultural independence. So does the nationalism increase the break between the strong sense of identity and the acceptance of the state`s structure? Does the nationalism restrict the development of universal multicultural communication?

The comprehension of nationalism within the context of scholar and political discourse represents a form of mediation that coincides with the idea of social reconstruction (Guibernau 2013: 145). When individuals feel isolated and the suspicion in governmental structures grows, the nationalism offers a change of closeness through following a common aim. The nationalist resistance against the homogenization and the increasing power of international institutions is, in particular cases, inspired by the contemporary social class division. The spread of modern nationalism across the international sphere is easy nowadays since it proposes to societies common goals from which they could benefit.

According to Guibernau, the nationalist groups will continue to strength their positions against cosmopolitism. The search after political recognition of minorities will relocate the major social focus to the cultural and political aspects of national identity. The religion will grow its influence and will become a key point during the reformation of national identities. For instance, the present establishment of Islamic Fundamentalism in the Middle East can be understood as a response to universalism and globalization.

Furthermore, whather the EU continues following the common political and migration policies, this will surely provoke new waves of nationalism which will be focused on keeping the sense of local identity instead of protecting the economic, social and political collective stability in the zone (Guibernau 2013: 148). The anti-immigration propaganda in Europe can inspire an eventual solidarity among the EU members but the communities which already exist within the European borthers will extend to be seen as different.

Nevertheless, since the last decades the media and technological revolution has enabled the modern societies to mediate easily through the help of mechanisms and innovative forms of mass communication. In this sense, nationalism is tightly related to the media when there is a need of spreading ideas, values and charisma. Future connection between politics and social media networks can be expected to produce an sharp diffuse of news that will reinterpret all public activities related to national topics.

Finally, the nationalist`s intensity also varies towards the policy of Third World countries. The last strive for financial and cultural independence from the West. The growing role of the media in the region could lead to the creation and progress of specific identical and cultural ideologies which are not necessarily holding on pro- Western course. Whether this happends, the potential conflict will be innevitable, first, because the growing in each nation gap between ethnic communities, majority of people who live in poverty and the small affluent elite will increase and second, the convenient role of nationalism to ignite hostility and disputes will find great ammount of supporters.

References

Bennett, Lance W. & Entman, Robert M. (2001) Mediated Politics: Communication In The Future of Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Brilmayer, L. The Moral Significance of Nationalism, Notre Dame Law Review 71:1 (1995) 7

Couture, Jocelyne. Nielsen, Kai. & Seymour, Michel. (1998) Rethinking Nationalism. Canadian Journal of Philosophy.Calgary, Alta., Canada: University of Calgary Press.

Fallaci, Oriana. (2004) The Force of Reason. New York: Rizzoli International.

Guibernau, Montserrat. (2013) Nationalisms: The Nation-State and Nationalism in the Twentieth Century. West Sussex: Blackwell Publishing.

Kymlicka, Will. (2001) Politics in the Vernacular: Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and Citizenship. Oxford Scholarship Online: November 2003.

Volkmer, Ingrid. (2012) The Handbook of Global Media Research. West Sussex: Blackwell Publishing.

Wilson, Robin. & Hainsworth, Paul. (2012) Far-Right Parties And Discourse In Europe: A Challenge For Our Times. Brussels: European Network Against Racism.

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