Citation

Varshney A. Perspect. Polit. 2003; 1(1): 85-99.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/S1537592703000069

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Why do we have so many ethnic partisans in the world ready to die as suicide bombers? Does a rational calculus lie beneath the nationalist pride and passions? Can it be discovered if only we apply our understanding of rationality more creatively? This article seeks to answer these questions by focusing on the nationalism of resistance. It argues that a focus on dignity, self-respect, and recognition, rather than a straightforward notion of self-interest, is a better prism for understanding ethnic and nationalist behavior, although self-interest is not entirely absent as a motivation in ethnic conflict. In the process of developing this argument, a distinction once made by Max Weber--between instrumental rationality and value rationality--is recovered and refined further. © 2003, by the American Political Science Association. All rights reserved.

Language: en