ABSTRACT
Nationalism has two core doctrines. First, there is the doctrine that all nations are morally entitled to be self-determined or self-governed. A self-determined nation is one subject to a national government and national laws, both of which presuppose that the nation is organized as a territorial, sovereign state; in a strict sense, the self-determined nation is one that is organized as a nation-state. Second, there is the doctrine that only national governments and nation-states are morally legitimate. This chapter deals with the first of the two core doctrines. It elucidates those characteristics of nations that give them, or are supposed to give them, moral rights of national self-determination, understood as entitlements to join, or to become, independent nation-states. On the voluntarist conception of nationality, the moral right to national self-determination is founded on the moral right of individuals to associate freely with others of their choice, and this in turn is derived from their moral right to live self-determined lives.
