Manifestations of Nationalist Attitudes: Domestic Music Listening, Participation in National Celebrations, and Far Right Voting

Abstract

In this contribution, we aim to develop an understanding of the behavioural manifestations of nationalism. Building on social identity theory and ethnic competition theory, we examine to what extent nationalist attitudes and perceived cultural ethnic threat are related to domestic music listening, participating in national celebrations and commemorations and voting for far right parties. We use data from the Social and Cultural Developments in The Netherlands surveys (SOCON, wave 2007). We find that the stronger one's nationalist attitudes and perceived cultural ethnic threat, the more likely one is to listen to domestic music. With regard to participation in national celebrations and commemorations, only nationalist attitudes have a positive effect, which seems to be mainly driven by feelings of national pride. With respect to voting for far right parties, perceived cultural ethnic threat is most important, whereas nationalist attitudes hardly affect far right voting.

On the causal relationship between participation in national commemorations and feelings of national belonging

“…The question is, however, whether such national ceremonies indeed have the power to increase feelings of national belonging. While previous studies have demonstrated that participation in national commemorations and feelings of national belonging are positively related (Lubbers and Meuleman 2016;Meuleman and Lubbers 2013), we cannot automatically conclude that participation in itself increases feelings of national belonging. Issues such as self-selection make it difficult to draw conclusions on whether or not participation in itself is the cause of enhanced feelings of national belonging (Etzioni 2000).…”

“…Many studies have also empirically demonstrated that participation in national commemorations and feelings of national belonging are positively related (Lubbers and Meuleman 2016;Meuleman and Lubbers 2013). We are uncertain, however, about the direction of this relationship (Coopmans, Lubbers, and Meuleman 2015;Etzioni 2000).…”

“…Based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen 1991), it can be expected that, in general, positive attitudes towards the nation promote various behavioural patterns with respect to it. There are many different ways in which people can express their attachment to the nation, for example, by listening to home-grown music, watching national television series, reading domestic books or nationalist newspapers, waving the national flag or supporting the national team during international sporting events such as the Olympics and the Football World Cup (Fozdar, Spittles, and Hartley 2015;Meuleman and Lubbers 2013;Skitka 2005). In other words, people who have heightened feelings of national belonging can "consume their nation" in different ways (Fox and Miller-Idriss 2008), and participation in national commemorations and celebrations can, in this regard, be seen as just another platform for citizens who have strong opinions about national identity to express these opinions (Kaftan 2013).…”

“…Many stimulating studies have empirically demonstrated the positive relationship between participation in national ceremonies and feelings of national belonging (Coopmans, Lubbers, and Meuleman 2015;Fozdar, Spittles, and Hartley 2015;Lubbers and Meuleman 2016;Meuleman and Lubbers 2013). These studies are based on cross-sectional data (feelings of national belonging and participation in national commemorations are measured at the same point in time) and, as a result, they do not provide information on the direction of the relationship between participation in national commemorations and feelings of national belonging.…”

“…This study used one general measurement of feelings of national belonging. It has been argued, however, that when studying the relationship between participation in national ceremonies and feelings of national belonging, a distinction can be made between patriotism and chauvinism (Lubbers and Meuleman 2016;Meuleman and Lubbers 2013). Patriotism is the love for and attachment to one's country and chauvinism reflects the blind love for one's country combined with feelings of superiority.…”