Ethnic, Racial, and Nationalist Social Movements

Ethnic, racial, and nationalist social movements organize around distinct ethnic identities, but they differ with respect to the scope of their claims, activities, and goals. Ethnic nationalist movements can be distinguished empirically from ethnic/racial movements by the presence of demands claiming legitimate rights to sovereignty and/or authority to administer a specific territory. As a result, nationalist movements are likely to come into conflict with existing state authorities and the international system. Theories explaining the rise, persistence, and decline of these movements vary with respect their emphasis on cognitive, rational, or instrumentalist motivations for such movements, and to the degree these movements come in conflict with state authorities.