National identity

National identity is a sense of shared belonging to a nation, shaped by perceived common history, culture, territory, or political membership.

Nation: A community understood as sharing a political identity, history, culture, or claim to self-government. National identity attaches belonging to this imagined community.
Benedict Anderson: A political theorist whose book Imagined Communities analyzed how people conceive of nations as bounded communities. His account explains how strangers can imagine themselves as fellow nationals.
Civic nationalism: A form of nationalism that grounds national membership primarily in shared political principles and citizenship. It contrasts with definitions that make ancestry or inherited culture decisive.
Self-determination: The principle that a people should be able to determine its political status and pursue its own development. National identity can support claims that a people merits political autonomy.
Nationalism: A political principle that treats the nation as a primary source of collective identity and political legitimacy. It links national belonging to claims about political authority.
Print capitalism: The expansion of commercial printing that helped standardize languages and circulate texts to mass audiences. Anderson connected shared print languages with the growth of national consciousness.
Ethnic nationalism: A form of nationalism that grounds national membership primarily in shared ancestry, culture, or language. It draws boundaries through inherited ties rather than civic commitment alone.
Secession: The withdrawal of a region or political community from an existing state to form or join another. Strong national identification can fuel demands to leave a state.
Collective identity: A shared sense of belonging that distinguishes a group from other groups. National identity is one form of this broader social phenomenon.
National language: A language promoted or recognized as representing a nation in public life. A common public language can make national membership visible and repeatable.

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