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"...At first sight, the modern secular civic-republican nation appear; to mark a rupture with any earlier historical form of the nation, just as its nationalism seems so different in tone and style from earlier covenantal nationalism... But in fact the modern republican forms and ideologies of the nation build on the examples, and use many of the symbols, values, and traditions, of earlier covenantal nations and nationalisms. In this sense, modern nationalisms, starting with the French Revolution, are best viewed as forms of a secular religion of the people, alongside or in opposition to traditional religions..." Anthony D Smith

Note by tamilnation.org See also   National Identity (Ethnonationalism in Comparative Perspective) Anthony D Smith, 1991 "...Through the rediscovery of an ethnic past and the promise of collective restoration of the former golden age, national identity and nationalism have succeeded in arousing and inspiring ethnic communities and populations of all classes, regions, genders and religions, to claim their rights as 'nations', territorial communities of culturally and historically cognate citizens, in a world of free and equal nations. Here is an identity and a force with which even the strongest of states has had to come to terms, and it is one that has shaped, and is likely to shape, our world in the foreseeable future..." more

ASEN: Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism  18th Annual Conference, April 2008 on  Nationalism, East and West: Civic and Ethnic Conceptions of Nationhood: Abstracts of Conference Papers "...It has long been standard in the field of nationalism studies to classify nations according to which principle serves to unify the nation. The distinction between the Western, political type of nationalism and the Eastern, genealogical variety of nationalism as systematised by Hans Kohn in 1944 has been used, extended, and adjusted by scholars to conceptualise a framework of “inclusive” nationalism based on citizenship and territory and “exclusive” nationalism based on common ethnic ties and descent. This conference sought to assess the continuing relevance of this dichotomy in its various forms: its contribution to theoretical work on nationalism, its usefulness for historical interpretation, and its value for contemporary policy-making..." and generally

Civic Nationalism & Ethno Nationalism - False Opposites? "...So-called civic nations like France, Canada, and the United States may have become relatively open societies that offer citizenship rights to all peoples, but they did not start out that way. In each case, they began with restricted core communities - be they white or Catholic or British or European - and expanded outward. As a result, when we urge nationalists, say in Bosnia or Kosovo, to follow our example and found nations solely on the basis of shared political principles, we are in fact urging them to do something that we never did ourselves..."

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From the Introduction to Cultural Foundations of Nations - Anthony D Smith, 2008..

"The purpose of this book is twofold: to trace the cultural foundations of nations in different periods of history by means of an analysis of their social and symbolic processes and cultural resources, and to throw some light on the vexed questions of the definition and dating of "the nation." The two questions are closely linked, for both relate to the more fundamental issue of whether we can speak of a single concept the nation, and if so, how it relates to the various forms of nations in different periods of history.

These forms of national community, I shall argue, are dependent on certain cultural traditions stemming from antiquity which have shaped their members' ethos and sense of national identity. But, before we can explore these traditions, we need to focus on questions of definition and periodization. These, in turn, are embedded in different theoretical approaches. In this introduction, therefore, I shall first briefly outline the main approaches in the field and their answers to t he problem of "dating the nation." This will afford an entry into the basic issues of the definition of the category of "nation" and the social tort-nation of the historical forms of nations, which will in turn allow us t embark on a historical sociology of the formation and persistence of national communities in different historical periods.

A good starting place is the short article published by Walker Connor in 1990, entitled "When is a Nation?" Here he argued that scholars have always focused on the question of "what is a nation?," but had neglected the equally important and interesting question of "when is a nation?" Even if the first was logically prior, of itself a definition of  the concept of the nation could not settle the problem of dating specific nations. That required in addition historical data, as well as a model or theory of nation formation. And Connor supplied both a definition, and model of how modern nations, at least, were formed.

For Walker Connor, nations are really self-aware ethnic groups. They constitute the largest group formed on the basis of a conviction on the part of their members that they are ancestrally related. That they may not be ancestrally related, that they may well stem from a variety of ethnic stocks, as is often the case, is irrelevant. It is not factual history, but felt history that counts in the making of nations. That is why modern nationalists liken the nation to a large family, and that is why their appeals to "blood" always strike a chord with the members of the nation. How does the nation form from its ethnic base? For Connor, this may be a long-drawn-out process, for nations emerge in stages. But modernization, because it brings many groups into close and regular contact, acts as a powerful catalyst; and ideas of popular sovereignty and the equation of alien rule with illegitimate rule have since the French Revolution excited successive ethnic groups to aspire to become independent nations. However, we cannot really speak of nations coming into being until the majority of their members know not just who they are not, but who they are; and, more important, feel that they belong to the nation and participate in its life. In a democracy, that means that we cannot speak of a nation until the majority have been enfranchised – something that did not begin to occur until the end of the nineteenth or early twentieth century. Ethnic groups may be a "fixture of history," found in every period, but existing nations are modern and really quite recent.

From the Conclusion

"...At first sight, the modern secular civic-republican nation appear; to mark a rupture with any earlier historical form of the nation, just as its nationalism seems so different in tone and style from earlier covenantal nationalism. This parallels the way in which the republican patriotism of classical antiquity introduced a quite different cultural tradition, collective sentiment, and model of community from those round about. But in fact the modern republican forms and ideologies of the nation build on the examples, and use many of the symbols, values, and traditions, of earlier covenantal nations and nationalisms. In this sense, modern nationalisms, starting with the French Revolution, are best viewed as forms of a secular religion of the people, alongside or in opposition to traditional religions.

What gives them their radical character is their disavowal of hierarchy and a concomitant revolutionary programme against the ancien regime in which sacred monarchy played so large a part. But, as the fashion for oath-swearing ceremonies and sacred compacts demonstrated, no such antagonism existed towards covenantal nations and nationalisms.

In fact, many elements which were ultimately derived from the Old Testament Covenant remained embedded in several European and Western nationalisms. Even some of the traditions of hierarchical nations like monarchy have been retained, if in attenuated form, and, along with covenantal traditions, they pose continuing challenges to the global progress of the republican nation.

Similarly, myths and memories of hierarchical or covenantal "golden ages" may inspire alternative destinies among wide sections of the community. Hence, the often multistranded character of many nations which can be read as so many palimpsests of different collective pasts and cultural traditions..."