ABSTRACT
It has been suggested thus far that the contentious nature of nationalist politics may be related to tensions between civic nationalism and ethnocultural nationalism. Such contentions invariably involve proponents of each side asserting that their nationalism offers the authentic promise of liberation, whereas that of their opponents offers only a conception of nationhood which would bring oppression. The question arises, therefore, as to whether such claims might sometimes be true. Is nationalism, in the words of Dryden, a Janus who ‘wears almost everywhere two faces; and you have scarce begun to admire the one, ere you despise the other’?
