ABSTRACT
As with other sociopolitical terms, there is no universally agreed defi nition of ideology in social theory and political science and the concept remains a broadly contested one. This destiny is only partly shared by the second partner of the couple here described, nationalism. Its main pillar, the term ‘nation’, is probably too slippery and so self-referential as to defy any attempt at an ‘objective’ defi nition (Conversi 1995, see also Jackson Preece in this book). However, there is some agreement that nationalism is an ideological movement speaking in the name of a self-defi ned nation and aiming at controlling political institutions (most often the state) within a specifi c territory. Being an ideological movement, ideology plays a central role in nationalism. Furthermore, ideology and nationalism are coeval terms since their origins equally lie in the French revolution: whereas the genesis of the term ‘nationalism’ is an issue of relative contention (Hroch and Malecková 2000), the term ‘ideology’ is usually located in Destutt de Tracy’s defi nition of it as the ‘science of ideas’ and Napoleon’s disparaging use of it to describe his adversaries (‘the ideologues’). It was the Napoleonic usage which really defi ned the term.
