Explaining national identity: from group attachments to collective action

This paper discusses the motivations, perceptions, and cognitions that are the foundation for group identity and stereotypes. Forming the basis for larger national identities, these attachments and categorizations are shown to be instrumental in mobilizing group members for collective action leading often to war. Drawing on literatures in social psychology, comparative politics, and international relations, an attempt is made to bridge the micro and macro levels of analysis. The research reviewed is organized into a framework that connects social-psychological processes of identity formation to inter-group conflict within and between nations. Group loyalties are connected to collective actions through the influence of public opinion, political representation, policy-making, and norms. This framework is broadened further by considering variability in a society’s political institutions, events that mark transitions in regimes or political cultures, and receptivity to appeals made by policy-making elites. The paper concludes with some implications for the resolution of conflicts between groups and nations and identifies a number of avenues for further research