Civic nationalism
Civic nationalism defines a nation through shared citizenship, political institutions, and civic principles rather than common ancestry or ethnicity.
Nation: A community understood as sharing a political identity, history, culture, or territory. Civic nationalism treats the nation as a political community rather than an ethnic lineage.
Civic integration: The process of incorporating people into a political community through shared institutions, rights, and public participation. It describes how civic membership can be developed across differences.
Ethnonationalism: A political ideology that identifies the nation with a shared ethnic group and its inherited culture or ancestry. It makes ethnic identity, rather than shared citizenship, the basis of national belonging.
Immigration: The movement of people into a country to live there, temporarily or permanently. Immigration tests how civic membership is extended to newcomers.
Citizenship: A legal status granting membership in a state and defining associated rights and duties. Citizenship supplies the formal membership civic nationalism emphasizes.
Naturalization: The legal process by which a noncitizen acquires citizenship in a country. It provides a formal route into the national community civic nationalism defines politically.
Cultural nationalism: A form of nationalism that emphasizes shared language, traditions, and cultural heritage as foundations of national identity. It shows how cultural commonality can outweigh civic principles in defining a nation.
Minority rights: Legal and political protections for groups that are numerically or politically less powerful within a society. Equal civic belonging depends on whether minority citizens receive meaningful protection.
Nationalism: A political principle that treats the nation as a central source of identity and legitimate political authority. Civic nationalism is one way nationalism defines membership in the nation.
Civic education: Education that develops knowledge of political institutions, rights, duties, and public participation. It teaches the institutions and principles that can unite citizens.