Building a New Model of Political Identity and Its Influence on Nationalism in Contemporary Global Conflicts

Abstract

In the paper, the researcher develops an integrative theoretical framework concerning the concept of political identity as well as its interrelation with nationalism in the context of global conflicts in the modern world. In general, political identity can be viewed as a dynamic process, which is influenced by a wide range of variables including culture, history, politics, globalization, and migration. Applying a mixed methodological approach, consisting of a case study analysis of nationalist movements and survey research among 1,240 participants, the researcher aims to develop an understanding of the process of political identity construction and its relation to nationalism. From qualitative results, it can be concluded that collective memory and cultural myths, as well as the ideology of the state, affect political identity formation. On the other hand, the results of the survey confirm the existence of a significant correlation between collective memory and political identity (r = 0.64, p < .001) and political identity and nationalism (r = 0.58, p < .001). SEM proves that the proposed model has good fit indices (CFI = 0.97, RMSEA = 0.042) and explains 48% variance in nationalism mobilization. This paper indicates that nationalism is usually generated as a reaction to challenges against political identity, especially in areas where there are cultural or territorial conflicts. The importance of this research is that it proposes a new and predictive theory regarding political identity and nationalism. This is helpful to decision makers, politicians, and sociologists. For future research, it may be useful to extend this theory using other cases and studying the role of digital media on political identity and nationalism.