Nationalism as an empty box: the Flemish case

Recently, my good friend and blogger Dimitri asked me how he could define ideology. He was tasked with a review of Breytenbach and his literary opposition to the South African Apartheid regime. This compelled me to re-investigate some material I came across last year whilst writing a paper myself. In this post I want to share some insights on nationalist ideologies.

I resent the tendency among nationalists to defend their ideas as a coherent national ideology. There, I said it.

When assessing whether nationalism can be an ideology, one must keep in mind the distinction between two contrasting views on the concept: the scientific and the ideological. Any ideology will claim that it offers a coherent world view rooted in a real basis. All other ideologies are rooted in something else, something 'not real', and thus are false. For nationalists the ultimate foundation is the national character, the 'soul' of a people. To allow this nationalists have to presume a primordial 'nature'. Traditional nationalism considers the qualities that make up this nature to be given and invariable. More sophisticated versions circulate today, but I feel that the discourse of cultural patterns is more of a rhetorical means to block criticism. For it sure is not a genuine element of the theory.

"Rectilinear Flanders - Turn the page in a
pull to the right and you will see the
center color black" - cartoonist GAL
criticizes the impact of the ideology behind
Flemish nationalism. Depicted is De Wever
chairman of the New-Flemish Alliance.

From a sociological point of view, presuming a people with a single nature is too much of an abstraction. Bart De Wever, leader of the Flemish nationalist party N-VA, often recognizes this in debates. What he fails to explain is how nationalism can escape the devastating impact of this conclusion. (It can't). This pattern is typical for modern nationalism: Romantic views of national liberation lack the mobilization potential it had back in the 19th century. And indeed nationalism in itself has become hollow, an empty demand for autonomy that floats in an ideological vacuum. The empty box of nationalism requires to be filled with the conceptual framework of a proper ideology.

In the Flemish case we see that the N-VA draws upon neoconservative ideas on society and mankind. For its economic program it takes on board neoliberal recipes. This makes that the party program - save from the demand of independence in itself - has nothing to do with nationalism. The other Flemish nationalist party, Vlaams Belang, adopts an ideology situated at the far-right. Politicians of these two parties argue that Flemish nationalism provides a case for analyzing practically anything, from the budget to migration policy. But they are wrong, nationalism is not an ideology! Always try to trace the underlying ideology and unmask nationalism for the poor view it is - if it can be called a view at all.