Essentially, nationalism is the belief in a nation's right to self-determination. There are however many variants of nationalism, although the two more commonly known are civic nationalism and ethnic nationalism. The two are entirely different due to their unique definitions of a nation.
Civic nationalists are indiscriminate towards members of their nation with regard to their ethnicity, and thus prefer to define a nation more by its geographical borders and their struggle therefore is rather more focused on the preservation of culture as opposed to race or ethnicity. Under its not-so-charismatic leader, Nick Griffin, The British National Party is slowly shedding its ethnic nationalist past and becoming more a civic nationalist party, and some of its supporters and indeed some councillors are not Caucasian or British in origin.
Ethnic nationalists are often rather more authoritarian however and tend to define their identity not along cultural lines but along ethnic or racial lines. This therefore leads to their struggle being aimed more at the preservation of their ethnicity or race. A good example of an ethnic nationalist would be Hitler, though he is certainly an extreme form, and should not be seen to represent ethnic nationalists as an entity. It is a shame however that many ethnic nationalists are racist, which is often why nationalism is so wrongly synonymised with racism. The National Front is an ethnic nationalist party in the UK.
Contrary to popular belief, nationalism is most commonly a left-wing ideology. This is partly because many people wrongly associate authoritarian 'tough' stances with right-wing politics, when left and right on the spectrum is determined entirely by economic stance. Mainly however, nationalists tend to prefer a slightly socialistic economy as opposed to a capitalistic economy. They often oppose globalisation in many forms, saying that the outsourcing of jobs to foreign lands increases unemployment in their homeland, which ultimately stifles the nation's ability to determine itself. It is no suprise then, that with that immigration and sometimes emigration is opposed.
Nationalists are not only concerned with the welfare of their own nations, although they do not wish to interfere at all in that of others, because they often believe that every nation has a right to self-determination. So when mass immigration occurs in their country, they are not only concerned that this might cause a dissolution of their culture/ethnicity and a strain on the national infrastructure (eg NHS, public transport etc), but also that it will certainly cause a dissolution of the migrant's homeland's culture/majority ethnicity and infrastructure due to the leakage of contributors to art, science and general employment (thus a general breakdown of that country's national self-determination).
Nationalists oppose wars fought for reasons that do not affect the national interest - the Iraq war was opposed by the entire nationalist community in the West. There is also often an environmentalist wing to the nationalist's beliefs, particularly focusing on renewable energy and the maintainence of an independant energy supply.
Nationalism's birth was in England under the reign of King John.
163π 63π
What people say when they mean heritage.
Whatβs your nationality? My nationality is Jamaican. My origins comes from Jamaica but I was born in United States.
walking around the neighborhood, generally in a pack of 4 or more people....up to no good while walking
Zach: Hey Jonathan, wanna go nationing in mooreland farms?
Jonathan: Hell yea brahh lets go nationing in the mo. fo.
21π 6π
Nationalism is the belief that your country has the right to exist on its own. Not to be confused with Patriotism.
Tyrant: Damn these nationalists. Now we'll have to try extra-hard to break them of their will! What? Urbandictionary is tell me to use the word 'Nationalism' in a defintion?! This is unbelievable.
285π 138π
Formerly the Montreal Expos, and because their fans never came to their games, they moved to the nations capital. Things have fared better than most people thought. Chad Cordero led the MLB in saves. They are also the greatest team in baseball.
The Nationals will win the East in 2006.
82π 42π
A tag ignorant sports fans put after their favorite team, e.g. Red Sox Nation, Raider Nation, Hawaii Rainbow Warriors Nation, etc. They think for some reason that adding this tag makes their shitty team and annoying behavior somehow more dignified.
Guy A: Dude, I just started liking the Jacksonville Jaguars because they wear pretty colors. I suppose you could call me a card carrying member of Jaguar Nation!
Guy B: Have you ever been to Jacksonville?
Guy A: No, but my second cousin once went to a wedding there and told me all about the hotel he stayed at on Facebook!
Guy B: OK, can you name two players on the Jaguars?
Guy A: Uhhhh.....
75π 36π
1)the country that you are a citizen of.
2)the country that you hold a passport of.
3)you can claim nationality of a country by birth, descent (child or grandchild of citizens) or naturalization (marriage)
if you are born in a different country from your familys birth, and then you claim that citizenship you are then that nationality. this happens a lot in the irish, italian, british diaspora
56π 26π