national identity

(noun)

An ethical and philosophical concept whereby all humans are divided into groups called nations.

Related Terms

Examples of national identity in the following topics:

  • Identity Formation

    • An example of national identity is the way in which Americans are united on the Fourth of July.
    • Indeed, the holiday would make little sense if one did not possess a sense of national identity.
    • Further, national identity is an ethical and philosophical concept whereby all humans are divided into groups called nations.
    • Members of a nation share a common identity and usually a common origin in their sense of ancestry, parentage, or descent.
    • Fourth of July celebrations, during which Americans dress in red, white, and blue, are manifestations of national identity.

  • Postcolonial Discourse

    • As anthropology, post-colonialism records human relations among the colonial nations and the subaltern peoples exploited by colonial rule.
    • Many Western countries proffered theories of national superiority that justified colonialism as delivering the light of civilization to benighted peoples.
    • Post-colonial literature, wherein writers articulate and celebrate the post-colonial identity of the decolonised, native society (an identity often reclaimed from the coloniser) whilst maintaining the independent nation's pragmatic connections (economic and social, linguistic and cultural) with the Mother Country.
    • Native cultural-identity in a colonized society, and the dilemmas inherent to developing a post-colonial national identity after the de-colonization of the country, whilst avoiding the counter-productive extremes of nationalism.
    • Using the native varieties of the colonial languages, the Anti-conquest narrative addresses the Mother Country's cultural hegemony; by "writing back to the center" of the empire, the indigenous people create their own national histories in service to forming and establishing a national identity after decolonisation.

  • The Concept of Civic Duty

    • In the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution, many British intellectuals reevaluated the identity of Britain as a nation and empire.
    • For many British subjects, the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution ushered in a period of pride and reevaluation of national identity.
    • The events of the Glorious Revolution reaffirmed that Parliament was the highest authority in the nation, and more significantly, that the monarch could not rule without parliamentary consent and approval.
    • The ensuing language of the "rights of Englishmen" that dominated 17th- and 18th-century discourse in Britain and the North American colonies thus gave rise to a sense of national identity that revolved around the belief that (white) men held certain "inalienable" rights of liberty and property that could not be violated by any political power.
    • While British intellectuals and leaders formulated a concept of "British identity" in the 17th and 18th centuries, Anglo-American colonists in North America also developed an identity that drew heavily on both British liberalism and the colonial American experience.

  • Introduction to Nation-States

    • However, nationalists and, consequently, symbolic narratives of the origins and history of nation states often continue to exclude minorities from the nation state and the nation.
    • First, "Which came first, the nation or the nation state?"
    • Nation states use the state as an instrument of national unity, in economic, social, and cultural life.
    • After the 19th-century triumph of the nation state in Europe, regional identity was usually subordinate to national identity.
    • The most obvious impact of the nation state, as compared to its non-national predecessors, is the creation of a uniform national culture through state policy.

  • Characteristics of the State

    • The people of Poland have long formed a nation with a shared language and culture, but that nation has, through history, been cross-cut by various political borders.
    • Today, Poland's boundaries roughly align with the geographical area where the people of the Polish nation live, and thus Poland can be thought of as a nation state.
    • The concept of the state is also different from the concept of a nation, which refers to a large geographical area, and the people therein who perceive themselves as having a common identity.
    • The nation state is a state that self-identifies as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit.
    • The term nation state implies that the two geographically coincide.

  • Race and Ethnicity

    • An individual is usually externally classified (meaning someone else makes the classification) into a racial group rather than the individual choosing where they belong as part of their identity.
    • Conceptions of race, as well as specific racial groupings, are often controversial due to their impact on social identity and how those identities influence someone's position in social hierarchies (see identity politics).Ethnicity, while related to race, refers not to physical characteristics but social traits that are shared by a human population.

  • Religious Identity and Politics

    • Within the United States, religious identity plays a significant role in political participation and voting.
    • Within the United States, religious identity plays a significant role in political participation and voting .
    • Catholics now comprise 25% to 27% of the national vote, with over 68 million members today.
    • Kennedy, Catholics have split about 50-50 between the two major parties in national elections.
    • Today one-fifth of the U.S. public–and a third of adults under 30–are religiously unaffiliated according to national polls.

  • Forced Entry

    • Cybercrimes are those committed via computer networks for such purposes as fraud, identity theft, and the hacking of sensitive information.
    • Such crimes may threaten a nation's or individual's security and financial health.
    • Other forms of fraud may be facilitated using computer systems, including bank fraud, identity theft, extortion, and theft of classified information.
    • The victim of identity theft (here meaning the person whose identity has been assumed by the identity thief) can suffer adverse consequences if he or she is held accountable for the perpetrator's actions.
    • Identity fraud is often but not necessarily the consequence of identity theft.

  • Branding Strategies

    • Brands whose value to consumers comes primarily from having identity value are said to be "identity brands. " Some brands have such a strong identity that they become "iconic brands" such as Apple, Nike, and Harley Davidson.
    • Iconic brands are defined as having aspects that contribute to the consumer's self-expression and personal identity.
    • Brands whose value to consumers comes primarily from having identity value are said to be "identity brands. " Some brands have such a strong identity that they become "iconic brands" such as Apple, Nike, and Harley Davidson.
    • Alternatively, in a very saturated market, a supplier can deliberately launch totally new brands in apparent competition with its own existing strong brand (and often with identical product characteristics) to soak up some of the share of the market.
    • Where the retailer has a particularly strong identity this "own brand" may be able to compete against even the strongest brand leaders, and may outperform those products that are not otherwise strongly branded.

  • The Immigration Act of 1965

    • The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 changed national immigration regulations to a model based on skills and family relationships.
    • The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (also known as the Hart-Celler Act) changed the nation's laws regulating immigration.
    • However, debate continues to wage between ideas of assimilation (that immigrants should adopt white, English-speaking American   culture), multiculturalism (the idea that groups should retain their distinctive identities and pursue political representation as groups), the economic impact of immigration, the impact of illegal immigration, and the role of languages other than English in public life.
    • The act would profoundly alter the nation's demographics.
    • Explain the passage and consequences of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965