Sources of Civic and Ethnic Nationalism in Ukraine

A vigorous debate is under way in Ukraine over what features do or should form the basis for a state-wide national identity. Instead of a simple battle over the primacy of a civic versus ethnic national identity, much of the controversy is over two variants of ethnic national identity: Ethnic Ukrainian and Eastern Slavic. Four sets of factors have a strong influence on the strength of a civic and the two ethnic variants of national identity at the mass level in Ukraine: (1) ethnic and cultural demography; (2) age and effectiveness of the state and its institutions; (3) elite discourse on civic and ethnic nationalism; and (4) state policies. These factors yield a complex pattern of competing pressures on mass national identification in Ukraine. Only future empirical measurement can assess the relative strength of the civic and two ethnic national identities that result from these competing pressures.