National Attachments and Good Citizenship: A Double-Edged Sword

The recent popularity of nationalist movements bears witness to the continued power national feeling in politics. This article considers potential relationship between different kinds attachments and what we call active allegiant citizenship—support for democracy, community participation, prosocial behavior. We analyze these relationships using data from two waves European Values Study. find that a set often called civic nationalism—including patriotism, identity, respect one’s country’s institutions—are connected with better citizenship on virtually all our outcomes, whereas ethnic nationalism is frequently worse citizenship. These associations, however, tend be weaker postcommunist states which have experience both democracy. results suggest can double-edged sword