ABSTRACT
The nationalist movement passes from an ethnic and selective identity-based phase, mirror-imaging the community, to a rational instrumental phase characterised by the construction of society and demands for institutionalisation that are inclusive of all inhabitants of the territory and not just the members of the ethnic group. Pan-Nationalisms defend a Kulturnation, a form of civilisation with boundaries vaster than any defined nation state, and whose reference is a community rather than a national society. Contrary to empires they are vehicles of ethnic homogenisation and often of linguistic and religious unification; consequently they do not tolerate cultural plurality. Pan-Nationalisms can become vehicles for traditional or modern empires, or of actual nation states. There are some human groups that, although they are not associated with a territory, do however socially reproduce features of their personality over the generations.
