Peripheral nationalism refers to the

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

sentiments of some regions or territorial entities within a

sovereign state A sovereign state is a State (polity), state that has the highest authority over a territory. It is commonly understood that Sovereignty#Sovereignty and independence, a sovereign state is independent. When referring to a specific polity, the ter ...

, in occasions in conflict with the larger concept of the

nation-state A nation state, or nation-state, is a political entity in which the state (a centralized political organization ruling over a population within a territory) and the nation (a community based on a common identity) are (broadly or ideally) con ...

in which they reside, and trying to construct a minority social space. Peripheral nationalism is so called because the regions in which it exists are at the "periphery" as opposed to the "center" of the territory of the State. Peripheral nationalism occurs in a culturally or linguistically distinctive territory — and oftentimes with a different socioeconomic degree of development — that resists incorporation or assimilation into an expanding State, or resists the larger Statewide nationalist construction. Existing theories of peripheral nationalism explain that the emergence of peripheral nationalism occurs in regions with a larger or greater degree of economic development in relation to the rest of the State, overlapping spatially delimited ethnic communities, as it is the case in the Basque Country or

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Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, or

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China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Peripheral nationalism may also emerge in opposition to the State seeking legitimacy through hegemony or domination by imposing a nationalistic sentiment which is then resisted by the smaller peripheral nationalisms, which defend their "cultural nation." Even if the aim of peripheral nationalists is emancipation, their solution may not be the creation of a nation-state for themselves, in which case a federal solution is preferred, according with the concept of "regional pluralism" in opposition to

monism Monism attributes oneness or singleness () to a concept, such as to existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished: * Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., in Neoplatonis ...

or imperialism. Peripheral nationalisms may demand a recognition of the national identity of their own regions (i.e. their own existence as a "nation"). The existence of such nations may coexist within the State they belong to (e.g. by proposing the concept of a "nation composed of several nations" or a " nation of nations"), or they may defend their right to

self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...

, secession, and the ability to create their own independent State.

References

{{reflist, 2 Nationalism Political theories

See also

References