ABSTRACT
The contributions in this book sought to shed light on the complex and tensionfilled relationship between nationalism and democracy. For most of the authors, the starting point was nationalism and the question was to understand how it related to democracy in a variety of contexts and situations. At the broadest level, we can distinguish three research orientations that emanate from this book. The first is a focus on how democracy features into nationalism as it involves a challenge by minority groups of a specific sociopolitical, institutional and constitutional situation. The second is the question of the impact of state nationalism on democracy and, conversely, of democracy on the nature and manifestations of nationalism as it emanates from the state. The third relates to situations of democratic transitions and consolidation and involves analysing how nationalism factors into these crucial yet complicated processes. Let us now summarize what observations and conclusions come out of the authors’ reflections on nationalism and democracy.
