Does nationalism imply any particular political system?
Nationalism comes with no built-in political program: it can be democratic or authoritarian, radical or reactionary, depending on the history of the particular nation and on the nationalists themselves. As a theory of government, it concerns the constitution of the political community itself, not the constitution of the government: it defines the jurisdiction within which forms of government are to be applied. France was still France under all its successive monarchies and republics. The character of a nation, as shaped by its history, will make it more apt to some forms of government than others; this is a manifestation of each particular nationalist movement. Nationalism in principle is compatible with any political theory or system except anarchism, imperialism, and multinational socialism. The history of political nationalism can generally be divided into two phases: the radical and the conservative. National-liberation movements are almost always aligned with the political Left (t
