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A Swiss anomaly? A relational account of national boundary‐making
Author(s) -
WIMMER ANDREAS
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
nations and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.655
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1469-8129
pISSN - 1354-5078
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8129.2011.00517.x
Subject(s) - nationalism , politics , state (computer science) , power (physics) , sociology , perspective (graphical) , work (physics) , epistemology , political economy , political science , law , philosophy , computer science , mechanical engineering , algorithm , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , engineering , physics
. This article reviews how major theorists of nationalism – from Ernest Renan to Benedict Anderson – have tried to come to grips with the puzzle that Swiss nationalism and the Swiss state present in view of the monoethnic states that surround it. I will argue that this puzzle disappears when assuming a political sociology perspective that highlights the networks of political alliances underlying nationalist movements and the power structure of recently formed nation‐states. Studying an ‘outlier’ case such as Switzerland helps us to gain insight into the general processes and mechanisms at work in the rise of nationalism and the nation‐state.