National identity emerges as an interaction between identity-formationon an individual and a collective level, wherein time (history),space (territory as place of living and as transcendental symbol) andgeneration play a role. An identity manifests itself mainly through action,and is also represented in symbols. Not the core content, which hasto be reinterpreted continuously, but the boundaries towards the outerworld serve as markers of the we-feeling of the community. In the paradigmdebate on nationalism during the last three decades, three mainquestions were at stake. At first the discussion whether an ethnic-culturalor a voluntary dimension is more important. Secondly the questionwhether the nation is a modern phenomenon or goes back to thepre-modern era. And finally the debate between postmodernists consideringthe nation as merely existing in the minds of the people, and othersconsidering the nation as a social reality as well, but to be understoodfrom an ethno-symbolic perspective. This article argues that a nation isboth voluntary and organic, can also exist in pre-modern times, and isalthough imagined at the same time also a social reality. It gives a panoramaof the shifting paradigms of nationalism and their representatives,and suggests that we are already approaching a post-postmodernistsynthesis. Finally it discusses the question of nationalism and democracyin defending even the thesis that, as history doesn’t show examplesof democracies outside a national setting, a living nation is a prerequisitefor a fully fledged democracy.
