34th Annual McDonald Lecture: Nationalism Under Scrutiny

The Centre for Constitutional Studies is delighted to present the 34th Annual McDonald Lecture "Nationalism Under Scrutiny: The Promises of Liberal Nationalism and Multinational Federalism" featuring Professor Alain-G Gagnon.

Several of the main authors that study the national phenomenon converge on a famous dictum made by Ernest Gellner in the opening statement of his book on Nations and Nationalism to the effect that "Nationalism is primarily a political principle, which holds that the political and national unit should be congruent."  This point raises immediately a series of questions pertaining to state sovereignty and territorial integrity as two central pillars of the continuing existence of the nation-state. 

Nationalism has become the most frequent expression of claims for political autonomy and self-realization in the modern world. It is significant to note that in territories as diverse as Canada and Spain, for example, nationalism has constituted simultaneously the struggle against a domineering view of the state imposed by central institutions and the attempt to establish democratic practices. 

Any study of the phenomenon of nationalism should point out to an impressive capacity to renew itself through transformative myths, narratives, normative arguments and, more concretely, through a variety of political actions. In this presentation, Professor Alain-G Gagnon intends to focus mainly on the promises of liberal nationalism and multinational federalism as concrete expressions of a renewed desire to build a common future in complex political settings. 

Register for the webinar here.