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Nation Building

Nation Building

Khushi Centre Capacity Nation Building

What can be done

Nation-building is a normative concept that means different things to different people. The latest conceptualization is essentially that nation-building programs are those in which dysfunctional or unstable or "failed states" or economies are given assistance in the development of governmental infrastructure, civil society, dispute resolution mechanisms, as well as economic assistance, in order to increase stability. Nation-building generally assumes that someone or something is doing the building intentionally.

But it is important to look at the evolution of theories of nation-building and at the other concepts which it has both supplanted and included. Many people believe that nation-building is evolutionary rather than revolutionary, that is takes a long time and is a social process that cannot be jump-started from outside.

To understand the concept of nation-building, one needs to have some definition of what a nation is. Early conceptions of nation defined it as a group or race of people who shared history, traditions, and culture, sometimes religion, and usually language.

The Evolution of Nation-Building Theory

The term nation-building is often used simultaneously with state-building, democratization, modernization, political development, post-conflicted construction, and peace building. But each concept is different, though their evolution is intertwined. The concept of nation-building came to be used especially among Indian political scientists a decade or so after World War II, to describe the greater integration of state and society, as citizenship brought loyalty to the modern nation-state with it. Reinhardt Bendix focused on the expansion of citizenship and of rights to political participation.

They are organizations that pursue wider social aims.


They are organizations that are not a part of the government and are not conventional-for-profit business. By definition, a non-governmental organization (NGO) is a legally constituted organization that operates independently from the government.What are NGO’s.

Why does nation-building matter?

Nation-building matters to intractable conflict because of the theory that a strong state is necessary in order to provide security, that the building of an integrated national community is important in the building of a state, and that there may be social and economic prerequisites or co-requisites to the building of an integrated national community.