LESSON 3

The Nation as Imagined

Community
NATION AS
AN

IMAGINED COMMUNITY
According to Benedict Anderson (1983), a nation as
"an imagined political community – and imagined as both
inherently limited and sovereign.“
 As Anderson puts it, a nation "is imagined because the
members of even the smallest nation will never know most
of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them,
yet in the minds of each lives the image of their
communion."
 Anderson depicts a nation as a socially
constructed community, imagined by the
people who perceive themselves as part
of that group.
Anderson attributes four(4) characteristics
to an imagined nation

 1. Imagined
 2. Limited
 3. Sovereign
 4. Imagine to be a community
 By “imagined,” he wrote, any community larger than a
village in which people know one another face to face is to
an extent imagined. The “deep horizontal comradeship”
that characterizes a nation is socially constructed, he wrote,
but also heartfelt and genuine; it explains why people die
and kill for their countries.
 Nationalism is universal in that every individual belongs
to a nation, yet each nation is supposedly completely
distinct from every other nation;
 Nationalism is an idea so influential that people will die
for their nations, yet at the same time an idea difficult to
define.
 Nationalism is a sense of loyalty or psychological
attachment members of a nation share, based on a
common language, history, culture, and desire for
independence.
 According to Hans Kohn, Nationalism is an ideology
based on the premise that the individual’s loyalty and
devotion to the nation-state surpass other individual or
group interests. Nationalism desires unity by their way of
a cultural background, including language and heritage.
 According to George Orwell, Nationalism is more on that
one’s country is superior to another.
 Nationalism and patriotism sometimes interchanged since
they both show their love to their nation.
Take Note!
 Nation- State

 Nation – (People/Community)
 State – (Territory)
PATRIOTISM AND NATIONALISM
 The root of the word patriotism is patriot, or a person who
is loyal to their country. In general, this is a very positive
feeling. Patriotism is support for one’s country because
you feel pride in it, and a belief in the values of that
country.

 Example
 People who volunteer to serve in the military feel a sense
of patriotism to their country.

 Nationalism
 For nationalism, the meaning is quite different. Instead of
just a positive feeling of pride in your country, nationalism
is a feeling of superiority.

 Example
 You will think that your country is better than other
countries, to the point that you reject other countries –
their people, products, culture, language, etc. –
simply because they are from other countries. Even if
things from your own country are inferior, you defend
them unconditionally because you believe you country is
better.