Defining the Nation Through the Kantian Lens

Zlatko Hadžidedić^*

• Sarajevo School of Science and Technology, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

The struggle to define the nation has long plagued nationalism studies. Is it a self-aware ethnic community, a product of homogenization demanded by industrialism, or a community rooted in premodern ethnic identities? This article proposes a new answer: a nation is any population bound by a foundational myth of its inherent right to sovereignty. This core myth is the generative principle. Cultural symbols, shared economies, and—most importantly—political claims to territory are all observable manifestations that flow from it. Such a definition also resolves the confusion between nations and ethnic groups, with the latter being defined by a different kind of foundational myth (a myth of common descent). This approach allows us to reinterpret the field's classics. Furthermore, it provides a robust tool for understanding phenomena ranging from the struggles of stateless nations to the rhetoric of established states. The nation is defined by the myth it is constituted by, not by the traits it displays. By cutting through classic debates to show why other theorists confuse the manifestations for the source, this framework exposes a confusion that—as detailed in Nations and Capital: The Missing Link in Global Expansion—obscures nationalism's fundamental role as capitalism's ultimate adaptive mechanism. This theoretical model then explains both nationalism's potent persistence and its changing forms: it's a perpetual cycle of affirming the foundational myth through political action, which adapts to various historical, ideological, and economic contexts. By identifying the sovereignty myth as the core, the theory finally offers a clear and powerful definition of the nation.