Abstract
The question of multiculturalism and national identities all over Europe is the subject of a large debate, nourished by wars following from the crumbling of the Soviet Empire and by the controversies raised by the Maastricht Treaty. This “return” of identity and national issues takes place in a paradoxical and complex way. To the East of the continent, the countries released from Communism have been, or still are, the theater of a “nationalist” fever that recalls the worst periods of European history. States have seemed powerless to curb national and popular movements, when they do not feed them directly, accentuating or using their force of fragmentation and disintegration. The “return” of nationalisms thus proceeds at the cost of their political instrumentalization by former apparatchiks: total nationalism is the ultimate stage of Communism, as Edgar Morin puts it.
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Notes
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© 2009 Riva Kastoryano
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Lapeyronnie, D. (2009). Nation, Democracy, and Identities in Europe. In: Kastoryano, R. (eds) An Identity for Europe. The Sciences Po Series in International Relations and Political Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230621282_10
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