Managerial Summary Research study „State-seeking nationalism: the emergence of small nations in multiethnic empires“

The study examines the emergence of small nations within multiethnic empires, such as the Habsburg Monarchy, where the formation of national identity was not in the interest of the ruling elites. The authors propose a theoretical framework in which nations emerge from the bottom up, out of conflicts over economic and political resources, including access to markets, credit, education, and administrative positions. Under specific conditions, such conflicts give rise to coalitions organized around shared ethnicity; a nation emerges once the number of such coalitions crosses a threshold. The formal model is combined with an analytical historical narrative and applied to the emergence of the Czech nation in the late Habsburg Monarchy and Austria-Hungary. Nineteenth-century liberalizing reforms, such as the abolition of serfdom and the dismantling of guild privileges, raised economic output but also brought Czech- and German-speaking populations into direct competition for jobs, credit, and administrative posts, giving rise to ethnically organized coalitions. Nation formation thus appears as a by-product of growth-oriented reform rather than its objective. The findings help explain how modernization and market integration can unintentionally activate latent cultural identities and give rise to nationalist mobilization elsewhere.

Target groups of stakeholders: economic historians, political scientists studying nationalism and ethnic conflict, policymakers in multiethnic states and regions, international organizations concerned with ethnic-conflict prevention (e.g., the EU), and educators and students in nationalism studies.

Citation: Mařanová, L., & Hudik, M. (2026). State-seeking nationalism: the emergence of small nations in multiethnic empires. Journal of Institutional Economics, 22, e39, 1–16.

Source: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744137426100770 (Open Access)