The Future of Nationalism. On the Dialectic of a Modern Political Religion

The project`s scientific questioning and points of departure concern the following three problem areas: a) Can nationalism be interpreted as a modem, political religion? b) Were the nationalistic outbreaks after the end of communism the start of a new nationalism in Eastern and Western Europe? c) The future of non-European nationalism in Latin America and the Caribbean as represented in the examples of Argentina and the Dominican Republic. The nationalism of the 19th and 20th Centuries shows - despite different appearances and manifestations - a structure which is similar to that of any one of the political religions. In instances of nationalism, the nation is provided with religious symbols - that is, religion becomes politicized and in various ways politics changes over into religion. Accordingly, the "scientific, new ground" of this project is to better define - among other features - the fundamental, religious structure of nationalism. The nationalistic riots after the collapse of real, existing socialism in Europe were widely interpreted as the sign of a new nationalism. However, the Western European societies show a different political development than that of many Central and Eastern European countries, in which the old nationalism seems to re-emerge. The creation of the "European Union", and with it, the overcoming of the classical distinctions between national state entities, takes a changed political and economic reality into account. In a third step, the development of non-European nationalism in Latin America and in the Caribbean shall be represented through the examples of Argentina and the Dominican Republic.