National Identity Crisis in Developing Countries in the Global Age and Its Causes

After the 1990s, with the end of the Cold War, great changes have occurred in the world scenario, with ethnic clashes and national conflicts becoming all the more salient, making national identity a hot topic in reality and the academia. To address the issue of national identity in the age of globalization, a deep-going theoretical discussion of the logic behind it is necessary, a discussion that covers the nature of both ethno-cultural identity and national identity, the superiority of national identity to ethno-cultural identity and the logic behind national identity crisis. In terms of the need for social identity, globalization, while changing the power structure of the world, weakens the autonomy of developing countries, especially that of those which are still in the process of modernization and are confronted with risks inherent in social transformation and where a resultant structural imbalance undermines the state＇s integrity and control, making national identity less appealing to ethnic groups. As a result, regional ethnic identity comes to the fore, leading to national identity crises in developing countries.

National Identity in the Era of Globalization: Crisis and Reconstruction

The era of globalization is posing a variety of challenges to national identity. In order to meet these challenges, it is important to offer theoretical scientific interpretations of them. A scrutiny of national identity as a concept reveals that national identity is actually a ＂four in one＂ combination of institutional identity, interest identity, cultural identity and non-national community identity, with formative mechanisms characterized the unity of the primordial state and the constructive, expressive forms characterized by the unity of consciousness and action, content characterized by the unity of politics and culture, and maintenance mechanisms characterized by the unity of emotion and self-interest. In the global age, national identity crisis usually arises in political, economic and cultural levels. The root cause for national identity crisis lies in the ineffectiveness of nation states＇ self-governance. In order to promote the construction of national identity in the global age, we need to： （1）promote reform of the political system, explore democratic models of governance, and create the institutional preconditions for national identity; （2） promote economic development, ensure fairness and justice, and guarantee interests in national identity; （3） develop national culture, strengthen value integration and enrich the cultural significance of national identity; and （4） recognize different levels of community development and promote community integration in national identity.