Feet of Clay of the National Pride

• • 
  • Presentation speakers
    • Klára Plecitá, Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic

  Abstract:

  National pride means being proud and happy of being a citizen of my country, and standing by the country in difficult times. Some European countries are characterized by a high degree of national pride (i.e. Ireland, Turkey, Greece, Iceland, Norway, Slovenia, …) while in others national pride is low (i.e. Lithuania, Ukraine, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Czech Republic, …). In Western culture, authentic (not hubristic) national pride is a positive emotion felt due to achievements and positive qualities and it is a proxy for social cohesion. Scholars have long argued national pride has to do a lot with citizens’ instrumental evaluations of the political system (i.e. specific political support), especially with trust in institutions. However, empirical analyses of the relationship between national pride and instrumental evaluations of the political system (trust in institutions and performance judgements) are missing. Research in the area of national pride has brought a knowledge about achievements different nations appreciate the most (sports, arts and literature, science and technology, history, development of democracy, …), findings of social, period, and generational changes influencing the national pride, evidence of relation between economic inequality and national pride, and between national pride and subjective well-being. Research based on analyses of the EVS 2008 data demonstrates how national pride depends on specific political support (distrust in key nation building institutions – government, army, and church; dissatisfaction with government; dissatisfaction with development of democracy), subjective well-being, social distrust, and ethnic and civic nationalism.

 

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