Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ttngx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-17T01:09:28.329Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“This Country Is Not for Anyone”: Explanations of Low National Pride in the Czech Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2019

Klára Vlachová
Klára Vlachová*
Affiliation:
Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
*
*Corresponding author. Email: klara.plecita@soc.cas.cz
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

National pride is a group-based and sometimes collective emotion that people feel toward their nation-state. It is often measured by the general national pride item in cross-national surveys. Czechs are among those nations whose members express low levels of general national pride in comparison with those of other nations in the European Union. Scholars debate the extent to which general national pride is influenced by social desirability or other identifiable reasons. The goal of this article is to identify the specific reasons that influence general national pride in the Czech Republic. Using data from the October 2015 round of the survey Naše společnost, I examine what makes Czechs proud of their country. Among frequently mentioned reasons for national pride are the country’s beauty, nature, cities, and history, as well as respondents’ family and friends. Results of an ordinal regression analysis based on the European Values Study 2008 data confirm that general national pride is significantly influenced by political interest, confidence in government and satisfaction with the development of democracy, happiness, and social trust.

Keywords

general national pridenational identitydiffuse political supportspecific political supporthappinesssocial trust
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 47 , Issue 6 , November 2019 , pp. 1000 - 1012
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahlerup, Pelle, and Hansson, Gustav. 2011. “Nationalism and Government Effectiveness.” Journal of Comparative Economics 39 (3): 431–451.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Ǻberg, Martin, and Mikael, Sandberg. 2003. Social Capital and Democratization: Roots of Trust in Post-Communist Poland and Ukraine. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Bakke, Elisabeth. 2000. “How Voluntary is National Identity?” Unpublished manuscript. http://folk.uio.no/stveb1/How_voluntary.pdf.Google Scholar
Barrett, Martyn. 2000. “The Development of National Identity in Childhood and Adolescence.” Inaugural lecture presented at the University of Surrey, England, March 22. http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/1642/1/00_Inaugural_lecture.pdf.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 1996. Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 2004. “In the Name of the Nation: Reflections on Nationalism and Patriotism.” Citizenship Studies 8 (2): 115–127.Google Scholar
Cebotari, Victor. 2015. “The Determinants of National Pride of Ethnic and Immigrant Minorities in Europe.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 21 (3): 269–288.Google Scholar
Čadová, Naděžda. 2015. “Důvody hrdosti a studu na české občanství - říjen 2015.” Press release, Public Opinion Research Center, Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, October 27. https://cvvm.soc.cas.cz/media/com_form2content/documents/c2/a1955/f9/ov151027.pdf.Google Scholar
Čadová, Naděžda. 2016. “Názory občanů na fungování demokracie a lidská práva—únor 2016.” Press release, Public Opinion Research Center, Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, March 18. https://cvvm.soc.cas.cz/media/com_form2content/documents/c2/a1359/f9/pd160318.pdf.Google Scholar
Červenka, Jan. 2016. “Důvěra ústavním institucím v květnu 2016.” Press release, Public Opinion Research Center, Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, May 24. https://cvvm.soc.cas.cz/media/com_form2content/documents/c2/a2064/f9/pi160524.pdf.Google Scholar
Connor, Walker. 1992. “The Nation and Its Myth.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology 33 (1-2): 48–57.Google Scholar
Dalton, Russell J. 1999. “Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies.” In Critical Citizens: Global Support for Democratic Government, edited by Pippa Norris, 57–77. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Diener, Ed, Richard, E. Lucas, and Shigehiro, Oishi. 2002. “Subjective Well-Being: The Science of Happiness and Life Satisfaction.” In Handbook of Positive Psychology, edited by C. R. Snyder and Shane J. Lopez, 63–73. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dolan, Paul, and Metcalfe, Robert. 2012. “Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments.” Journal of Social Policy 41 (2): 409–427.Google Scholar
Dražanová, Lenka. 2015. “National Identity and the Interplay between National Pride and Ethnic Exclusionism: The Exceptional Case of the Czech Republic.” Ethnopolitics 14(3): 235–255.Google Scholar
Easterly, William, Ritzen, Jozef, and Woolcock, Michael. 2006. “Social Cohesion, Institutions, and Growth.” Economics and Politics 18 (2): 103–120.Google Scholar
Eisenstein, Zillah. 2000. “Writing Bodies on the Nation for the Globe.” In Women, States and Nationalism: At Home in the Nation? edited by Sita Ranchod-Nilsson and Mary Ann Tétreault, 35–54. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Eriksen, Thomas H. 2002. Ethnicity and Nationalism: Anthropological Perspectives. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Evans, M. D. R., and Kelley, Jonathan. 2002. “National Pride in the Developed World: Survey Data from 24 Nations.” International Journal of Public Opinion Research 14 (3): 303–338.Google Scholar
Ford, Robert, Tilley, James, and Heath, Anthony. 2012. “Land of My Fathers? Economic Development, Ethnic Division and Ethnic National Identity in 32 Countries.” Sociological Research Online 16 (4). http://www.socresonline.org.uk/16/4/8.html.Google Scholar
Gellner, Ernest. 1983. Nations and Nationalism. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Grossberg, Arlene, Struwig, Jaré, and Pilay, Udesh. 2006. “Multicultural National Identity and Pride.” In South African Social Attitudes, edited by Udesh Pilay, Benjamin Roberts, and Stephen P. Rule, 54–76. Cape Town: HSRC Press.Google Scholar
Guibernau, Montserrat. 1996. Nationalisms: The Nation-State and Nationalism in the Twenty-first Century. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Guibernau, Montserrat. 2004. “Nation Formation and National Identity.” Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis 34 (4): 657–682.Google Scholar
Ha, Shang E., and Jang, Seung-Jin. 2015. “National Identity, National Pride, and Happiness: The Case of South Korea.” Social Indicators Research 121 (2): 471–482.Google Scholar
Haller, Max, Kaup, Gerd, and Ressler, Regina. 2009. “National Identity in Comparative Perspective.” In The International Social Survey Programme 1984–2009: Charting the Globe, edited by Max Haller, Roger Jowell, and Tom W. Smith, 222–241. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hamplová, Dana. 2015. Proč potřebujeme rodinu, práci a přátele. Štěstí ze sociologické perspektivy. Prague: Fortuna Libri.Google Scholar
Holy, Ladislav. 1996. The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation: National Identity and the Post-Communist Social Transformation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Inter-Parliamentary Union. 2018. Women in National Parliaments. http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm (accessed February 24, 2019).Google Scholar
Jackman, Robert W., and Miller, Ross A.. 1998. “Social Capital and Politics”. Annual Review of Political Science Vol. 1: 47–73.Google Scholar
Jeffres, Leo W., Lee, Jae-won, Neuendorf, Kimberly, and Atkin, David. 2007. “Newspaper Reading Supports Community Involvement.” Newspaper Research Journal 28 (1): 6–23.Google Scholar
Jones, Frank L., and Smith, Philip. 2001a. “Individual and Societal Bases of National Identity: A Comparative Multi-Level Analysis.” European Sociological Review 17 (2): 103–118.Google Scholar
Jones, Frank L., and Smith, Philip. 2001b. “Diversity and Commonality in National Identities: An Exploratory Analysis of Cross-National Patterns.” Journal of Sociology 37 (1): 45–63.Google Scholar
Klingemann, Hans-Dieter, Fuchs, Dieter, and Zielonka, Jan. 2006. Democracy and Political Culture in Eastern Europe. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kohn, Hans. 1944. The Ideal of Nationalism: A study in its Origins and Background. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Nedomová, Alena, and Kostelecký, Tomáš. 1997. “The Czech National Identity.” Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 5 (1): 79–92.Google Scholar
Kukovič, Simona. 2013. “(Dis)trust in Political Institutions: Comparisons between New Democracies of Central and Eastern Europe.” Journal of Comparative Politics 6 (2): 20–30.Google Scholar
Kunštát, Daniel. 2014. “Důvěra ústavním institucím a spokojenost s politickou situací v prosinci 2014.” https://cvvm.soc.cas.cz/media/com_form2content/documents/c2/a1832/f9/pi141219.Google Scholar
Kuzio, Taras. 2002. “The Myth of the Civic State: A Critical Survey of Hans Kohn’s Framework for Understanding Nationalism.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 25 (1): 20–39.Google Scholar
Letki, Natalia, and Evans, Geoffrey. 2005. “Endogenizing Social Trust: Democratization in East-Central Europe.” British Journal of Political Science 35 (3): 515–529.Google Scholar
Luengo, Oscar G., and Maurer, Marcus. 2009. “A Virtuous Circle for All? Media Exposure and Political Trust in Europe.” CONfines 5(9): 39–48.Google Scholar
Miller, David, and Ali, Sundas. 2014. “Testing the National Identity Argument.” European Political Science Review 6 (2): 237–259.Google Scholar
Miller-Idriss, Cynthia, and Rothenberg, Bess. 2012. “Ambivalence, Pride and Shame: Conceptualization of German Nationhood.” Nations and Nationalism 18 (1): 132–155.Google Scholar
Morrison, Mike, Tay, Louis, and Diener, Ed. 2011. “Subjective Well-Being and National Satisfaction: Findings from a Worldwide Survey.” Psychological Science 22 (2): 166–171.Google Scholar
Norris, Pippa. 1999. Critical Citizens: Global Support for Democratic Government. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Olivera, Javier. 2013. “On Changes in General Trust in Europe.” Growing Inequalities Impacts. Discussion paper 80. August. http://gini-research.org/system/uploads/581/original/80.pdf?1385131268.Google Scholar
Poggi, Isabella, and D’Errico, Francesca. 2011. “Types of Pride and their Expression.” In Analysis of Verbal and Nonverbal Communication and Enactment: The Processing Issues, edited by Anna Esposito, Alessandro Vinciarelli, Klara Vicsi, Catherine Pelachaud, and Anton Nijho, 434–448. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 6800. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Reeskens, Tim, and Hooghe, Marc. 2010. Beyond the Civic-Ethnic Dichotomy: Investigating the Structure of Citizenship Concepts Across Thirty-Three Countries. Nations and Nationalism 16 (4): 579–597.Google Scholar
Reeskens, Tim, and Wright, Matthew. 2011. “Subjective Well-Being and National Satisfaction: Taking Seriously the ‘Proud of What?’ Question.” Psychological Science 22 (11): 1460–1462.Google Scholar
Resnick, Philip. 2008. “Hubris and Melancholy in Multinational States.” Nations and Nationalism 14 (4): 789–807.Google Scholar
Roberts, Andrew. 2010. The Quality of Democracy in Eastern Europe: Public Preferences and Policy Reforms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schnabel, Annette, and Hjerm., Mikael 2014. “How Religious Cleavages of Civil Society Shape National Identity.” Sage Open (January-March): 1–14. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2158244014525417.Google Scholar
Shulman, Stephen. 2002. “Challenging the Civic/Ethnic and West/East Dichotomies in the Study of Nationalism. Comparative Political Studies 35(5): 554–583.Google Scholar
SmithAnthony, D. Anthony, D. 1986. The Ethnic Origins of Nations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell,Google Scholar
SmithAnthony, D. Anthony, D. 1991. National Identity. Reno: University of Nevada Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Elliot R., Seger, Charles R., and Mackie, Diane M. 2007. “Can Emotions Be Truly Group Level? Evidence Regarding Four Conceptual Criteria.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 93 (3): 431–446.Google Scholar
Smith, Elliot R., and Mackie, Diane M.. 2016. “Group-Level Emotions.” Current Opinion in Psychology 11: 15–19.Google Scholar
Smith, Tom W., and Kim, Seokho. 2006. “National Pride in Comparative Perspective: 1995/96 and 2003/04.” International Journal of Public Opinion Research 18 (1): 127–136.Google Scholar
Šubrt, Jiří, and Vávra, Martin. 2010. “Které období svých dějin považují Češi za nejvýznamnější?” In Historické vědomí jako předmět badatelského zájmu: teorie a výzkum, edited by Jiří Šubrt, 81–94. Kolín: Vysoká škola politických a společenských věd.Google Scholar
Šustek, Vojtěch. 2013. Atentát na Reinharda Heydricha a druhé stanné právo na území tzv. protektorátu Čechy a Morava. Prague: Scriptorium.Google Scholar
Tajfel, Henri, and Turner, John C.. 1986. “The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior.” In Psychology of Intergroup Relation, edited by William G. Austin and Stephen Worchel, 7–24. Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers.Google Scholar
Tilley, James, and Heath, Anthony. 2007. “The Decline of British National Pride.” British Journal of Sociology 58 (4): 661–678.Google Scholar
Tracy, Jessica L., and Robins, Richard W.. 2007. “Emerging Insights into the Nature and Function of Pride.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 16 (3): 147–150.Google Scholar
Uslaner, Eric M. 1999. “Democracy and Social Capital.” In Democracy and Trust, edited by Mark E. Warren, 121–150. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Veenhoven, Ruut. 2015. “Social Conditions for Human Happiness.” International Journal of Psychology 50 (5): 379–391.Google Scholar
Vink, Maarten P., and Bauböck, Rainer. 2013. “Citizenship Configurations: Analysing the Multiple Purposes of Citizenship Regimes in Europe.” Comparative European Politics 11: 621–648.Google Scholar
Vlachová, Klára. 2019. “Significant Others and the Importance of Ancestry for Czech National Identity.” National Identities. 21(1): 57–72.Google Scholar
Vlachová, Klára, and Řeháková, Blanka. 2009. “Identity of non-self-evident nation: Czech national identity after the break-up of Czechoslovakia and before accession to the European Union.” Nations and Nationalism 15 (2): 254–279.Google Scholar
von Scheve, Christian, and Ismer, Sven. 2013. “Towards a Theory of Collective Emotions.” Emotion Review 5 (4): 406–413.Google Scholar
Watson, Dorothy, Pichler, Florian, and Wallace., Claire 2010. Second European Quality of Life Survey. Subjective Well-Being in Europe. Dublin: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.Google Scholar
Weiss, Martin. 2016. “Tahle země není zřejmě pro nikoho.” Echo24. May 19. http://echo24.cz/a/iqUFA/tahle-zeme-neni-zrejme-pro-nikoho.Google Scholar
Wimmer, Andreas. 2017. “Power and Pride: National Identity and Ethnopolitical Inequality around the World.” World Politics 69 (4): 605–639.Google Scholar
Znoj, Milan. 2008. “The Paradox of Post-Communist Civil Society: Reflections on the Czech Experience.” In Trust and Transitions: Social Capital in a Changing World, edited by Joseph D. Lewandowski and Milan Znoj, 237–258. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar