Formation of Modern State Identity: Social and Cultural Dimensions

The article aims to stress the importance of cultural factor influencing the formation of modern states’ identities. Studying the formation of state identity through the consideration of exogenous (globalization, establishment of interactions between different states, geopolitical situation) and endogenous (level of social interactions between people, historical memory,common destiny, cultural heritage) factors, the author concludes on the dominance of internal factors influencing this process. It is substantiated that the latters, maintained by the wholesociety, help the state to act as a unitary actor in the international arena. However, the state can construct its own identity only when the so-called We-feeling is supported by all members of its society. Today only a few countries are considered as nation states because their societies are formed by different ethne. If the cultures of some ethnic groups clash inside the country, the latter is unable to build its own identity. Taking into account the effects of two possible scenarios of cultures’ coexistence, it is offered a few models which allow the social identity to be constructed. They include the policy of multiculturalism supported with the state, interexistence of groups, and the collective strategy of ethnic social competition.As a result, it is assumed that, while any of these models is applied the state should play a dominant role promoting the erasement of intercultural contradictions existing between different ethnic groups. The research itself and the conclusions made are based on the usage of inductive, comparative, analytical and historical methods