ABSTRACT
Scholars who have studied mainly a single geographic or cultural area have been tempted to see the rise of nationalism and of nations in that area either as something alien or as something unique and peculiar to the area. The descriptive and analytical scholar begins with the organized complexity of something that stands visibly before him; the historian deals with processes the outcomes of which are known. Many historians speak of the "growth of nations"; some historians and many statesmen and policy-oriented political scientists speak of "nation-building"; many social scientists prefer to think and speak of "national development". Finally, the concept of "national development" also implies a limited but significant degree of combinatorial freedom. It is reminiscent of the mechanistic and voluntaristic aspects of the "nation-building" concept, but it also includes an awareness of internal and external interdependence in both space and time.
