Emil Durkheim

Emile Durkheim and the Philosophy of Nationalism
Author(s): M. Marion Mitchell

Source: Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Mar., 1931), pp. 87-106
Published by: Academy of Political Science
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EMILE DURKHEIM AND THE PHILOSOPHY
I
OF NATIONALISM 1
N spiteof his untimely
deathin 1917, thereis stilla lively
interest in the doctrines of the eminent French soci-
ologist, ]mile Durkheim, heir of the Positivist phi-
losophy of Comte and Spencer. Brilliant members of the
Durkheim school, like Marcel Mauss, Celestin Bougle, Georges
Davy, and Paul Fauconnet, have followed the path of special-
ization for which he blazed the trail.2 By consecrating
themselves to the posthumous publication of his courses in
education and sociology they have kept his memorygreen in
intellectualcircles. In the United States, Charles Gehlke and
Harry Elmer Barnes have estimated his contributionsto so-
ciological theory,and his plans for pioliticalreconstruction."
Although the raison d'etre of his scientific research in
sociology was the welding of France into a well organized and
well integrated nation, and although there is a great deal in
his thought which is pertinent to an understanding of the
national fermentof contemporarytimes,no one has approached
Durkheim's work fromthe standpointof his nationalism. This
1 The works of Durkheim which bear most intimatelyupon this subject are
as follows: La Division du travail social, 2e. edition avec une nouvelle Preface
intitulee," Quelques remarquessur les groupementsprofessionelles ", I9oi; Les
R?gles de la mithode sociologique, I895; Le Suicide, I897; The Elementary
Forms of Religious Life, translatedby Joseph Ward, 19I5; the monographsin
L'Ann6e sociologique, pulblishedunder the directionof Durkheim, I898-I9I3;
the war pamphlets, Germany Above All, translated by J. S., I9I5, Who
Wanted War? translatedby A. M. Wilson-Garineau, 19I5, and Les Lettres a
tous les franfais, I916; the posthumouspublications Aducation et sociologie,
1922; Sociologie et philosophie,I924; L'Aducation morale, 1925; Le Socialisme,
sa definition,ses de'buts,la doctrinesaint-simonienne, 1928. The Revue philo-
sophique and the Revue de mhtaphysiqueet de morale contain many additional
monographs.
2 Paul Fauconnet has an article on "The Durkheim School in France", in
the Sociological Review, Vol. XIX, pp. I5-20.
3 Gehlke, Amile Durkheim's Contributionsto Sociological Theory; Barnes,
"Durkheim'sContributionto the Reconstructionof Political Theory",POLITICAL
SCIENCE QUARTERLY,Vol. XXXV, p. 236.
87
88 POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY [VOL. XLVI
is the object of the present study. For out of the gospel of

whichexaltedthe groupor " society", and
social determinism
minimized the importance of the individual, there evolved a
conception of the nation which foreshadowed some of the
principal doctrines of the militant Action Fran9aise, of the
Italian Fascists, of the Russian Bolshevists, and of " one-
hundred-per-cent" Americans.
The Principles of Durkheim's Sociology
Like Saint-Simon, Comte and Spencer, Durkheim sought
to formulatea positive science of " social facts".' But they
had begun with general problems of a speculative character,
such as the nature of society,or the definitionof the supreme
laws of evolution and progress-a task which he thought,dur-
ing the early stages of a new science, as fruitlessas the alche-
mist's search for the philosopher's stone. Not content with
binding sociology to the petticoats of philosophy, those who
followed the Comte-Spencer tradition were too prone to sub-
ordinate it to psychologyand biology, eitherby overestimating
the significanceof the individual, or by contendingthat society
was an organism subject to the laws of the physical world.
Approaching the whole problem from the standpoint of a
realist, Durkheim issued a declaration of the independence of
sociology fromphilosophy,biology and psychology,and called
for specialization as the prerequisite for any formulationof
general laws.2 Instead of falling a prey to the fashionable
taste for generalities, each sociologist must devote himself to
the productionof detailed monographs on the basis of a care-
ful observation and use of the comparative method. Durk-
heim always insisted that " social facts" must be considered as
" things", that since they are infinitelydiverse and complex,
they must be explained by the complex, and not by their in-
dividual manifestations.3 As "realities " these social facts
1 For what follows see " Sociolo;gyand the
Social Sciences", by 1. Durkheim
and P. Fauconnet in Sociological Papers, London, Vol. I, p. 258; also " La
Sociologit en France au XIXe. siecle", Revue bleue, i9oo, pp. 609 and 647.
2
Les Regles de la me'thodesociologique,pp. I et seq., 8, I24, 172 et seq.
3Ibid., pp. 2I, 35, I75; Le Suicide, p. vii.
No. i] DURKHEIM AND NATIONALISM 89
were governed by laws of their own as immutable as those

which governed the physical world. They could be measured
or compared as accurately as the intensityof electric currents.
Beginning with the premise that to know man one must
know his social milieu, Durkheim placed his whole emphasis
upon the collective life as a reality distinctfrom and superior
to that of its individual members.1 Just as the fusion of
hydrogen and oxygen produced water, a substance entirely
dissimilar from either of its componentparts, so the fusion of
individuals in the formationof a group produced a "being"
of a new type.2 These " beings " Durkheim called "societies".
He was not speaking of one great universal entity,but of any
well definedaggregate or group. Not only did he include the
clan, the tribe,the city-stateand the nation, but the religious
sect, the school, the literaryand the occupational groups.3
Durkheim regarded these " societies" as " the most power-
ful combinationof physical and moral forces of which nature
offersus an example."' He endowed each of them with a
personality of its own, a conscience or soul, and each had its
own law, constitutionand morality,its own manner of thinking
and feeling.5 As the source and guardian of civilization, of
all the knowledge and experience of a multitude of minds
during many long generations,the society had a certain fixity
and continuitywhich was lacking in the brief and shadowy
life of the individual.6 It was a great " moral power ", which
acted coercively upon him.7 In a public gathering or crowd
1 Les Regles de la metltodesociologique, p. I27; Sociologie et philosophzie,

p.
79; L'tducation morale,p. I03.
2 Ibid.; also Sociologie et philosophie,p. 36.
3 La Division du travail social, p. 242; Les Re'gles de la methodesociologique,
pp. I03 et seq. ; The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, pp. I0, 44-45;
L'JAducation morale,pp. I70, 263-264.
The ElementaryForms of Religious Life, p. 446.
5 Les Regles de la meithodesociologique, p. 94; Sociologie et pihilosophie,p.
I36; "Sur le Totemisme", L'Anne'e sociologique,Vol. V, p. ii6.
6Sociologie et philosophie,p. I07; The ElementaryForms of Religious Life,
pp. 2 I 2, 434.
7Sociologie et philosophie,pp. 56, 78; L'Afducationmorale,p. 274.
go POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY [VOL. XLVI
where all hearts vibrated in unison, men perfectlyinoffensive

under ordinarycircumstancesmightbe carried away to commit
acts of atrocity which they would later regard with horror.
This same coercive power was manifest in all great " social
currents'" of enthusiasm,pity or anger, which the individual
could not resistwithoutincurringthe wrath of the group.1
Durkheim listed certain "social facts" which tended to
become more fixed than the transitoryemotionsof a crowd or
the intense feelings of a patriot who answers the call of his
country. There were precepts,maxims and laws, which com-
posed the " collective conscience" of the group.2 The com-
mandments,"Thou shalt not kill ", and "Thou shalt not steal",
were the product of a " collective opinion " which imposed
itself upon the individual because the voice of all had an
accent which the voice of one could never have.3 Language,
with the system of concepts it translated,was the manner in
which the society as a whole representedthe facts of experi-
ence.4 Durkheim mentionedsome " collective habits" which
became crystallized in the form of institutionssuch as the
courts,the government,the fiscal and credit systems,and the
church,all of which the individual accepts but does not create.5
There were others just as real-the figuresof natality, mar-
riage, divorce, and suicide, which showed by their constancy
and regularity,in a given society,that they were proper to it,
and beyond the influenceof individuals.6 Indeed, Durkheim
could furnish us with manifold examples, either material or
psychic,of the externalityand coercive nature of social facts.
The warning prick of man's consciencewas in realitythe voice
of societyspeaking withinhim.7 A determinedtype of archi-
1 Le Suicide, p. 418; Les Regles de la methode

sociologique,pp. 9-II.
2 Les Regles de la methodesociologique, pp. 7, 12-I3; La
Division du travail
social, p. 71.
3L'Aiducationmorale, p. 104.
4The Elemtentary Forms of Religious Life, p. 434.
5Les Regles de la mdtthode sociologique, pp. 6, II.
6 Le Suicide, pp. IO, 336; Les Regles de la m thode
sociologique, p. I3.
7L'ducation morale,p. ioI.
No. I] DURKHEIM AND NATIONALISM 9I
tecturehad a social reality of its own.' The child formedhis

taste by enteringinto contact with monumentsof the national
taste.2 Even the exact directionof roads and routes of trans-
portationwas determinedby social impulse.3
Durkheim believed that the society was within as well as
outside the individual. Man's double personalityconsisted of
an individual being and a social being, which was the better
part of himself.4 If the beliefs, traditionsand aspirations of
the group were extinguishedfromthe individual mind, if these
"( social representations" were destroyed, Durkheim assures
us, the society would die.5 Despite his recognition of the
individual being, one is inclined to feel that Durkheim has
reduced man's brain to a mere reservoirfor group sentiments
and ideals.
Durkheim's sociological interpretationof religion is strik-
ingly original, and of considerable interestfor our purposes.
Since anything so universal in its appeal could not be a vast
hallucination, but must have its roots embedded in some
concrete reality of experience, he undertook an exhaustive
study of the totemicbeliefs of the primitiveAustralian tribes,
in order that he might lay bare that reality, and separate it
from the symbolism which invested it.L He concluded that
religion was born in the midst of an effervescentsocial
environment.At intervalsin the gray monotonyof the routine
of daily life, the Australian native participated with the
fellow members of his clan in the frenzied excitement and
passionate whirl of song and dance. In the emotional atmos-
phere of this gathering the individual was transformed.7 He
was carried away by a mysteriouspower which, although it
ILe Suicide, p. 354.
2lbid.
3Ibid.
' The ElementaryForms of
Religious Life, p. I6.
5 Ibid., p. 347.
6This was the purpose of The ElementaryForms of Religious
" Definitiondes phenomenes Life; see also,
religieux", Annee sociologique, Vol. II.
7 The ElementaryForms of Religious
Life, pp. 262-263.
did not originate in him, was neverthelessa part of him, and

which aroused in his being a feeling of reverence. Since he
could consideran abstractentityonly if it were connectedwith
some concretereality,the native created the totemas a symbol
of the power he had experienced,just as other religious groups
have set up a personal deity, or as the nation has become in-
carnate in the flag.' This totemicsymbol remained long after
the gathering had dispersed, and in time it became, not only
the god, but also the flag of the clan.
Since the only thing which surpassed the individual was the
society of individuals, Durkheim concluded that the religious
force which exalted the Australian native was nothing other
than the " collective and anonymousforce of the clan." 2 The
totem was at once the symbol of the god and of the society
because the god and the society were one and the same thing.3
The primitive Australians were in reality worshipping the
group of which theywere a part. In the same way the reality
back of the personal deity Yahweh was the Hebrew people.
This principle once accepted, Durkheim believed there was
no longer any religious mysteryto becloud the human intelli-
gence. For the immortalityof the soul expressed the immor-
tality of the society.4 All sacred things, that is, collective
traditions, sentimentsand emotions, were those which had
been elaborated by the group, and the profane were those of
individual origin.5 If nearly all the great social institutions
were born in religion it was because " the idea of society is
the soul of religion." 6 The very obvious nationalistic impli-
cations of these conclusions will be pointed out later.
1 The ElementaryForms of Religious Life, pp. 220, 232.
2Ibid., p. 22I.
'Ibid., p. 206; Sociologie et philosophie,p. 75.

' The ElementaryForms of Religious Life, p. 268.
5 Ibid., 262; "Definition des phenomenesreligieux", Anne'esociologique,Vol.
II, pp. 25-26.
6 The ElementaryForms of Religious Life, p. 4I9.
Durkheim's Plan for Political Reconstruction

The timeswere out of joint, but Durkheim feltthat through
his research into the social conditionsof the past he had found
the method to set them right. Due to the rapid progress of
the principle of organic solidarity,' profound changes had
taken place in the structureof European societies, and man
had not yet adjusted himself to his new environment. The
relaxation of the bonds attaching the individual to the collec-
tive usages of the group had produced a state of moral isola-
tion,the evils of which were manifestin the alarming increase
in the suicide rate in the industrial foyers of European
societies.2 The serious nature of industrial and commercial
crises, the existing antagonism between capital and labor,
indicated an economic anarchy equivalent to Hobbes' descrip-
tion of the state of nature.8
To overcomethe evils of an aggravated egotism,which was
paving the road to moral misery and suicide, Durkheim felt
that men needed the inspirationof a new ideal, which would
arouse the spirit of self-sacrificeand devotion.4 Only by a
revival of the spirit of association and by an extensive regula-
tion of individual activities could the prevailing anarchy be
cured. Durkheim was a strong advocate of the tonic proper-
ties of moral discipline.5
1 According to Durkheim there were two fundamentalprinciples
underlying
the complex process of historic evolution: those of mechanic and organic
solidarity. The firstprevailed in clan and tribe where the collective person-
ality alone existed. The severityof repressivepenal law and the diffusionof
religious sentimentthroughoutall phases of the group's activities,were char-
acteristicof this period. The principleof organic solidaritywas based on the
division of social work, which increased in direct proportonto the numerical
growth and density of the population. The prevalence of civil contractual
law, an ever-increasingindividual liberty, the emancipation of political,
economic and social functionsfrom religious monopoly,were characteristicof
this period. Durkheimbelieved that this professionalorganizationwas gradu-
ally succeeding the territorialin the life of the nation. See La Division du
travail social, chaptersii, iii.
2 Le Suicide, p. 84.
'La Division du travail social, pp. 344, 359.
'L'Aducation morale,pp. II6, 269.
5"Critique de Saint-Simon et du saint-simonisme",Revue de me'taphysique
et de morale,Vol. XXXIII, p. 441.
94 POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY [VOL.XLVI
A survey of the social units which had functioned in the

past convinced him that the remedy lay in the rebirthof the
professionalgroup, the only unit which was sufficientlydurable
to functionwith success under an extremelycomplex division
of social work.' The persistenceof these groups throughout
the historicpast, fromthe Roman gilds to the new flourishing
of industrial and commercial syndicates in France, was in
itself an evidence of their economic and moral possibilities.2
He deplored, however, both the narrow localism of the cor-
porations of the Middle Ages, which led to their suppression
by the omnipotentnational state, and the undefinedstatus of
the existing syndicates in France, where lack of cooperation
threatened to increase the economic anarchy then prevailing.
To keep pace with the expansion of industryfrommunicipal
to national and internationalmarkets,Durkheim advocated the
reorganizationof the occupational group as a public institution
coextensive with the bounds of the state, and subject within
certain limitationsto its control.3 He did not draw up any
elaborate plan for the division of powers between the state
and the occupational group. He believed, however, that the
functionof the formerwas to controlthe general principles of
industrial legislation, and to oppose to the particularism of
each profession the interestof the whole unit. To the pro-
fessional group he transferred the highly specialized tasks
which the state was incapable of exercising. Each group was
to controlthe intricatedetails of its own organization, to pro-
vide machinery for the regulation of conflictsbetween the
differentbranches of its own profession,and except where the
interestsof other groups were concerned, was to act as an
autonomous unit. Durkheim's scheme encouraged the for-
mation of subsidiary organizations for particular localities or
groups, whose r6le in relation to their professional unit was
1 Durkheim was sure that the family,the educational system,religion, and
regional units like the commune,the departmentand the province were in-
capable of effectingthis moral regeneration. See "La Famille conjugale ",
Revue philosophique,Vol. XCI, pp. I2-13; Le Suicide, pp. 427-432; La Division
du travail social, pp. xi, xxxii,xxxiii.
2L'Aducation morale,pp. 272-3.
3La Division du travail social, pp. xxvii-xxx; Le Suicide, pp. 436-44I.
similarto thatof the professionalunittowardthe state. He

believedthatthishierarchyof groupswouldprovidethe only
stable foundationfor the introductionof functionalrepre-
sentationin the legislatureto replace the existingterritorial
arrangement.'
Durkheimdid not expectthat the restorationof the pro-
fessionalgroupto its rightfulplace in Frenchsocietywould
serveas a panacea for all ills.2 He did feel, however,that
thesegroups,foundeduponthenaturalinterests of menwithin
the same occupation,would fillthe " emptyvoid " between the
individualand the nation. He expected that each group
would become a " collective personality", with its own man-
ners, traditions,rules and obligations. Through its facilities
for recreation,education and mutual aid, it would provide a
social and moral, as well as an economic milieu. Durkheim
lived through an era of extensive social reform in western
Europe, when the atmospherewas saturated with the schemes
which the Collectivists,Solidarists, Social Catholics, Marxian
Socialists, State Socialists and Syndicalists advanced as a
solution for the woes of the world. His own project was, to a
certain extent, a synthesis of some of the more moderate
elementsof the above systems. Far from advocating an out-
and-out proletarian program,he was the avowed enemy of all
violent upheaval which involved a sudden and serious breach
with the past. By the subjection of both individual and
economic intereststo the " sane discipline " of a hierarchy of
professional groups culminating in the state, he expected to
produce " a new renaissance of the social life." 3
Durkiteimand the Philosophy of Nationalismn
It remains to be seen how the principles of Durkheim's
sociology are manifestin his philosophy of nationalism-how
the realist who repeated with an almost monotonousfrequency
La Division du travail social, p. xxxi; Le Suicide, p. 450.
2L' ducation morale, p. 294; La Division du travail social, pp. xi, xxxi,
xxxiv; Le Suicide, pp. 435-450; "Critique de Saint-Simonet du saint-simonisme",
Revue de metapltysiqueet de morale,Vol. XXXIII, pp. 444, 445.
3Le Suicide, pp. 285, 354.
that " social facts" must be considered as " things", and who
exalted the group as a personality infinitelysuperior to the
individual, came to regard the nation as the supreme reality
of his time.
When he spoke of " societies" he included not only the
family, the clan, the tribe, the city-stateand the nation, but
also the religious sect, the school, the occupational group and
so on.' They were all "societies", but they were not all of
equal importance. He recognized the " political society" and
la patrie as the most powerful social units in existence.2 By
the " political society" Durkheim seems to have meant the
state with particular relation to its governmentalframework.
He visualized la patrie as the spiritual incarnation of the
French people.3 Both were differentpoints of view on the
same reality-the nation. As the following statementclearly
indicates, he believed the principle of nationality to be the
only satisfactoryfoundationof the state:
A nationalityis a groupof humanbeings,who forethnical

or perlhaps
merelyforhistoricalreasonsdesireto live underthe
samelaws,and to forma singlestate; and it is nowa recognized
principleamongcivilizedpeoplesthatwhenthiscommondesire
has been persistentlyaffirmed it commandsrespect,and is in-
deed the onlysolid basis of a state.4
For all practical purposes Durkheim used the terms

" people ", " nation ", " state ", la patrie, and " society", syn-
onymously,to denote a " collective being " with a personality
distinctfrom and superior to that of its individual members.5
His nation was then, like his other societies, more than the
sum total of the individuals who composed it, and more than
the territorythey occupied. As a " psychic being " it was a
great moral as well as a great material power.6 Recalling the
1 Cf. supra, p. 89.
2 L'ducation morale, pp. 83-84, 91.
3 Ibid., p. 9I.
4 GermanyAbove AII, p. 40.
5L'Aducation morale, pp. 84-88.
6 Sociologie et
philosophie, pp. 78, 84-85, 107; The Elementary Forms of
Religious Life, pp. 207-209, 422; Les Regles de la me'thodesociologique,p. 127.
No. i] DURKIHEIM AND NATIONALISM 97
" social facts" which he stressed most in the compositionof a
society,we findthat those collective habits which had crystal-
lized in the form of political, moral, legal or religious insti-
tutions,and collective sentimentsin the form of the precepts,
maxims, laws and language of the group seemed to predomi-
nate.' The constituentelements of his national society were
therefore cultural, and his nation was largely the product
of customs, traditions and beliefs derived from a common
historicpast.
It followednaturallyfromthis,that each " collectivebeing"
had its own temperament,its soul and its own characteristics,
which could not be found again in exactly the same form in
the whole universe. In each nation the law, the economic
organization, the literature,the language, the monumentsand
the moral philosophy were in consonance with the character
of the people.2 This characterwas not subject to change from
day to day. Indeed, climate,temperatureand geological con-
ditions varied more easily from year to year than did the
temperof nations.3 Durkheim had very definiteideas about
the preservationof the national identitythroughoutthe whole
course of its existence,despite the forces of change and evolu-
tion. He found in France an excellent example of unity in
the developmentof a national society.4
Durkheim believed that the Frenchman, consciously or un-
consciously, was a " true Cartesian ".5 The French genius
was characterizedby a need for clarity,simplicity,and a thirst
for rationalism. Even the language was not made to translate
obscure ideas. French poets, novelists and artists depicted
man in general, instead of presenting characters as complex
as Faust or Hamlet.6 Cosmopolitanism was a trait of the
1 Cf. supra, p. go.

2
L'Aducation morale,pp. 79, 3I8; Aducation et sociologie,p. So; Les Regles
de la methode sociologique, p. 94; La Division du travail social, p. 392;
Sociologie et philosophie,p. 56.
3Le Suicide, pp. 343, 446.
4L'Aducation morale, p. 7I.
5 Ibid., p. 29I.
6Ibid.
French mind, and the greatestnational glory of France lay in

the human ideas she had expanded over the world.' In I9I5
he proudly displayed an additional characteristic. Despite
the " native nervousness" which foreign nations attributedto
France, she had a sort of " instinctivewisdom ", which per-
mitted her to retain her equilibrium in all the crises she had
been through.2
Before the war he admired the German propensity for
"singing in common, walking in common, playing in com-
mon ", and he set them up as an example to the individualistic
Frenchman.' War psychology was no doubt responsible for
his findingan " abnormal and noxious " elementin the German
mentality. Accepting Treitschke'sphilosophy as the criterion
for his analysis of their character,4he asserted that the " ex-
travagant pride and ambition" of Germany, her " bellicose
disposition" and " systematicsavagery ", were the outcome of
a systemof ideas which bade the state rise above all human
forces to dominate the world. It seems to be as difficultfor
the scientificsociologist to preserve an objective attitude in
the study of human relations as it is for the nationalist to
retain a sense of humor in discussing national characteristics.
It is evident that Durkheim intended not only to maintain
but to strengthenthe French nationby drawing the individuals
who composed it fromtheir moral isolation and welding them
into a coherentanimated society. In his sociological research
he had found that suicide varied in inverse proportionto the
degree of integration of religious, domestic and political
groups.5 Catholic societiesdisplayed a much greaterimmunity
than Protestant because they were more closely integrated.8
From his study of the historic past he had observed that
during periods of disintegrationwhen the attractionof society
L'Aducation morale,pp. 32, 322.

2 Lettresa tous les fran(ais, pp. I5-I6.
3'L-ducation moralc, p. 268.
4 GermanyAbove All, pp. 3, 42.

5Le Suicide, p. 222.
6 Ibid., p'p. I49 et seq., I73.
was weak, and egotism had a free career, great unhappiness

prevailed. On the other hand, in great national crises or
national wars, when the image of la patrie assumed a place in
individual consciencesthat it did not occupy in time of peace,
and patriots became a real part of the group they loved, the
toll of suicides visibly diminished.' Durkheim therefore
wished to make France a strongly integrated national unit.
He did not seek to restorethe excessive integrationof primitive
society,where all individualitywas submergedin one collective
personality. Nor did he expect to attain his end by increasing
the centralization in France, for it was the pursuance uf that
policy which had reduced the individual to a state of moral
isolation. He wished to fill the empty void by producing
contactsbetween the nation and the individual: " The nation
can be maintained only if between the state and the particular
individuals there is interpolateda series of secondary groups
which are near enough to the individuals to attract them
strongly and draw them into the general current of social
life." 2 To attain greater national solidarity by a process of
decentralizationseemsparadoxical. But it will be remembered
that Durkheim's professional groups were national corpora-
tions, their membershipincluded all those within a given in-
dustrythroughoutthe nation, and their functionwas to draw
the individual into the general currentof national life.
Durkheim was a strong exponent of the value of public
gatherings,ceremoniesand emblemsin promotingthe integra-
tion of the nation. " It is only by uttering the same cry,
pronouncing the same word, or performingthe same gesture
that they [people] feel themselvesin unison." 3 The flag was
an essential " rallying point" for la patrie, just as the totem
was for the clan.4 These symbols, by expressing social or
national unity in material form,made it more obvious to all,
and withoutthem the sentimentsthey evoked could have only
1 Ibid., pp. 222, 429; L'Aducation morale,p. 78.

2 La Division du travail social, p. xxxiii.
3 The ElementaryForms of Religious Life, p. 230.
'Ibid., pp. 22I, 23I et seq.
I00 POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY [VOL.XLVI
a precariousexistence. In the same way, it was the established

policy of all parties, political, economic and confessional, to
have periodic reunionsthat they might " revive their common
faith by manifestingit in common."' Durkheim obviously
believed that all meetings, rites and ceremonies which con-
centratedthe thoughtsof the group upon their commonbeliefs
and aspirations, produced a " moral-remaking" that raised
the vitalityof the nation.2 During the anniversaryof the fall
of the Bastille on July 14, i88o, Durkheim spent the whole
day in the streets for sheer joy of basking in the popular
enthusiasmwhich this fete evoked.8 His implicitfaith in the
cooperative work of the group made of him a committee-man
par excellence.4 From the outbreak of the war in I9I4 he
devoted himself with passionate ardor to all forms of intel-
lectual propaganda forsustainingthe morale of the nation. It
is said thathe was diligent in his attendanceat meetingswhere
questions of war and victorywere under discussion, and that
he never failed to inspire his listenerswith courage and forti-
tude. In the "Letters to All Frenchmen" he urged every
individual, by a process of moral revictualling,to encourage
his fellow citizensby word and example, to draw freshcourage
fromthe personalityof the group, and in this time of peril to
sacrificehimself for France without counting the cost.5
Although Durkheim denied that education alone could
remedy the evils of contemporarysociety, he assigned it an
importantr8le in the regenerationof the individual French-
1 The ElementaryForms of Religious Life, pp. 209-2I0.

2 Ibid., p. 427.
3 See Georges Davy, " tmile Durkheim", Revue de me'taphysiqueet de

mnorale, Vol. XXVI, p. i88.
' Georges Davy says that Durkheim belonged to the
followingcommittees:
Conseil de l'Universit6; Comite des travaux historiqueset scientifiques;Comite
consultatifde l'enseignementsuperieur; Commissiondes etrangersau ministere
de l'interieur; Comite frangaisd'informationet d'action aupres des juifs des
pays neutres; Fraternitefranco-ame'ricaine; Pupilles de l'ecole publique; Comite
de publicationdes etudes et documentssur la guerre; Comite de publicationdes
lettres"a tous les fran5ais; Ligue republicaine d'Alsace-Lorraine; Societe des
amis de Jaures; Pour le rapprochementuniversitaire.
5 Les Lettres 2 tous les franfais,pp. 7, I2-13, 130.
No. i] DURKHEIM AND NATIONALISM IOI
man.' He thoughtthat education created in man that " social

being " which was not hereditary,and yet comprised all that
gave value and dignity to human life. It was therefore" the
methodical socialization of the younger generation," and the
means by which each society renewed perpetually its own
existence.2
Durkheim remarked that French education had been and
ought to be something essentially national.3 The school was
a "' miniature political society "', a " social microcosm ", which
prepared the younger generation for civic life.4 The French
schools translated the French spirit, and the public school
system,where the vast majority of the children were to be
found, was and ought to be the guardian of the " national
type".' He did not deny the necessityfor special education
on thebasis of caste, class and;profession.0 This was extremely
important. But above and beyond it were certain ideas and
practices which ought to be inculcated in all individuals
throughoutthe nation. To accomplish this, he thought that
education should be subjected to some measure of state
control.7
When he came to consider what were these ideas and senti-
ments,he was forced to conclude that a culture largely human
was all that the individuals of a large contemporarysociety
like France could have in common.8 He said that he would
sponsor no returnto a narrowly nationalistic system,but that
all French childrenshould be taught the value of discipline,so
essential in democracies. They must love justice and respect
both reason and science,withoutwhich democracywould never
have existed. Their education was to be a rational education,
entirely exclusive of ideas borrowed from revealed religion.
1 Education et sociologie,p. 70.
2Ibid., p. 49.
3La Vie universitairea Paris, p. 24.
4lEducation et sociologie, pp. 39-42,96; L'tducation morale,pp. 263-4.
5L`Education morale, p. 4.
lEducationet sociologie, pp. 44-47.
7 Ibid., p. 60.
8 Ibid., pp. 7I-73; L'AIducation morale,pp. IO, i6, 2I, 49, 56, 105.
But above all they must be taught attachmentto the group.'

Durkheim believed that France could live only if there were
sufficienthomogeneity among her members. Education was
one means of developing the spirit of association. Its funda-
mental task, therefore,was to teach the children to love and
to know la patrie, to study its history as " the genius of a
people developing in time ", and to be ready to put its interests
before their own, even if the attachmentshould involve the
sacrificeof theirlives.2
Durkheim believed that the training for this collective life
should begin in the classroom. The class must become a little
society sui generis, with its own temperament,manners and
customs.3 By appeals to class honor,by arousing the sense of
class responsibility,the teacher could stimulate the spirit of
the group. By compiling a history to record class achieve-
ments,by keeping an honor book, and other souvenirs of past
generations of students, Durkheim expected to evoke in the
child a feeling for continuity. In his estimation continuity
was second only to solidarity in importance. To prevent any
relapse to the old perniciousstate of moral isolation he favored
the continuationof these groups outside the school throughthe
formationof societies of graduate students. One might add
that for Durkheim education was the nationalization, as well
as the socialization of the individual. As in Athens, Sparta
and Rome, its objective was to produce good Athenians, Spar-
tans and Romans, he hoped that in France it would produce
good Frenchmen.4
Durkheimbelieved that domesticends should be subordinate
to national ends, for the simple reason that la patrie was a
social group of higher order than the family.5 Similarly, the
human objective was in its turn far superior to the national."
'L'kducation morale,pp. 75, 82; Akducation et sociologie,p. 6o.

2 L'1kducationmorale, pp. 90, II6, 3I8-I9.
I Ibid., pp. I 70, 2 77, 282-284.
'Aducation et sociologie, pp. 39-42.
6L'I?ducation morale,pp. 84-85.
i Ibid., p. 86.
No. i] DURKIZEZM AIND NATIONALISM 103
But there did not exist any real society of humanity,with its
own organization, its own conscience-in a word, its own
individuality. The national state was the most highly organ-
ized human group that existed. Although he realized that
internationalties were already weakening the national, and
although he expected the dissolution of the present states to
be followed by the erection of others more vast than those of
today, he scarcely expected that there would ever be con-
stitutedone which comprised all humanity.' Instead of sub-
ordinating and sacrificinga group which actually existed to
an ideal which might never be more than " a being of the
reason", Durkheim proposed to realize human ideals within
the national group.2 Instead of striving for material expan-
sion at the expense of its neighbors, each state should focus
its attentionupon the improvementof social conditionswithin
its own frontiers. If thiswere done all rivalrybetweennations
would disappear, and therewould no longer be any antagonism
between the human and the national ideals, for they would be
one and the same thing. Each national state would become
a special point of view on humanity2'.3 Positivistthough he
was, Durkheim, because of his insistence on realities, could
not bring himselfto place the dream-stateof humanityabove
a national state in actual operation.
Durkheim was a Jew,but despite the anti-Semiticcampaign
that was waged in France at the close of the nineteenth
century,he was a soulful French patriot. He believed that
man could be complete only if he belonged heart and soul to
the various societies in which he was engaged-to the family,
the corporation,the political association, la patrie and human-
ity-but above all to the political association and la patrie.4
It is significantthat Durkheim made no plea for provincial
patriotism. Not that he expected territorialdistrictsto dis-
appear, but he thought regional ties artificial,and the pro-
1 Ibid., La Divisionz du travail social, pp. I38,
401.
2 L7?duzcation morale,
pp. 86-7; "La Sociologie en France ", Revue blene,
May, I900, p. 612.
3 L'tdueation morale, pp. 87-88.
bil., pp. 83-84, 9I.
4
vincial spirit gone forever.' I have found no real evidence

of devotion to Alsace, other than his membership in the
Republican League of Alsace-Lorraine, and his defense of
France, in one of his war pamphlets, for being " faithfulto
the religion of remembrance."2
Durkheim's theoryof patriotismwas entirelyin consonance
with his views on humanity,and on the position of the in-
dividual in society. He thought a " spiritualized patriotism"
would furnishthe necessary ideal to draw the individual out
of himself to work for the glorificationof the national unit.'
Since every citizen derived the best part of himself from la
patrie, it was his fundamentalduty to assure its existence,and
to be willing to sacrifice himself for it. Durkheim did not
wish the individual to carry in his breast the image of a
jealous egotistical state, but rather to visualize la patrie as a
partial incarnationof the idea of humanity.4 No true patriot
could endure to witnessthe sufferingsof his companions with-
out sufferingtoo. It was thereforehis duty to do everything
in his power to ameliorate the internalconditionsof his society.
This was a pacific and humanitarian rather than a military
ideal of patriotism. When the war came, however, Durkheim
found it comparativelyeasy to prove that France was in the
rightand all her enemies,particularlyGermany,in the wrong.5
His pacifist ideal forgotten,he became as active as the most
aggressive patriot in exhorting Frenchmen to sacrifice all to
la patrie in the confidentexpectation of victory.6
Durkheim's sociological interpretationof religion might
affordsome food for thoughtto those who proclaim a religion
of nationalism. While he expressed some doubts as to the
efficacyof one universal religion in drawing the individual
from his moral isolation, it seems that in his own mind the
human ideal loomed larger than the strictly national. His
1 La Division du travail
social, pp. xxxii-xxxiii.
2 Who Wanted War?, p. 52.
3L'Iducation morale,p. II7.
41bid., pp. 91, 94.

5 Who Wanted War?, p. 55.
6 Les Lettres a tous les franjCais,pp. I3, 15.
writings,however, easily lend themselvesto a differentinter-
pretationfor any one who cares to appreciate it. Among the
Australian natives he found that the totem was at once the
symbol of God and the flag of the clan; that, in other words,
the group and the divinitywere one.' If the clan worshipped
itself, and if the reality back of all religion was the society,
could there not be a religion of nationalism with the flag as
the visible representationof the national god? If the in-
dividual bows before the collectivityas before God, does he
not bow before the nation as the highest collective unit in
actual existence? Other statementscorroboratethis point of
view. Durkheim saw no essential difference between an
assembly of Christians celebrating the principal dates in the
life of Christ,or of Jews rememberingthe exodus fromEgypt,
and a reunion of citizens commemoratingsome great event in
the national life.2 There were beliefs which he felt were to
a considerable extent indistinguishable from actual religious
beliefs: " La patrie, the French Revolution, Jeanne d'Arc, are
for us sacred things, which we do not permit any one to
defame."' Moreover, he recognized the propensity of any
society to set itselfup as a god and to create gods. This was
never more evident than in the French Revolution, when
Fatherland, Liberty and Reason were deifiedby public opinion
in a religion which had its own dogmas, symbols, altars and
feasts.4 This idea of the nation-god is an obvious conclusion
to draw from Durkheim's writings,but I repeat that it con-
stitutedthe highest ideal of Durkheim, himself,only in so far
as la patrie spiritualized was a partial incarnationof humanity.
Not all sociologists who submerge the individual in the
personalityof the group, and who subject him to social laws
as invariable as those which govern the physical world, are
necessarily nationalists. Nor do all realists inevitably rush
to the conclusionthat the nation is the highest existing reality.
It must be acknowledged, however, that Durkheim's phi-
l Cf. supra, p. 92.
2 The ElementaryFormzsof Religious Life, p. 427.
"De"finition
3 des phen.omenesreligieux",Anneiesociologique, Vol. II, p. 20.
4 The ElementaryForms of Religious Life, p. 2I4.
io6 POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY [VOL. XLVI
losophy of nationalismwas the logical sequel to his search for

realities and his gospel of social determinism.
Durkheim's thought seems to mark the transitionfrom the
humanitarian ideals of the Positivists of the mid-nineteenth
centuryto the jingoistic nationalismof the twentieth. Instead
of pinning his faith to the utopian scheme of a universal state,
he sought to attain human ideals within the nation itself.
While retaininghumanityas a god, he recognized the divinity
of the nation. Instead of branding all patriotismas national
egotism, he sought to reconcile the cosmopolitan ideal in a
spiritualized patriotism. The essence of Durkheim's national-
ism was his conceptionof the nation as the most exalted " col-
lective being " in actual existence. Equally importantwas his
own objective the closer integrationof France by means of
national professional groups, meetings and symbols, and a
national system of education. By subjecting individual and
economic intereststo a sane discipline he hoped that France
would become a well-regulated national society. He empha-
sized over and over again the existence of a national person-
ality, which despite the similarity of European cultures, did
not correspondexactly to any other,and which retained some
part of its identitythroughoutall time. In a very real way
then,Durkheim foreshadowedwhat Charles Maurras has been
pleased to call " integral nationalism". It is not a far step
from a conception of the nation as the supreme reality, and
humanityas the highest ideal, to one in which the nation ful-
filsthe requirementsof both. Where Durkheim clung to the
vestiges of humanitarian pacifism and abhorred violent up-
heaval, his successors openly discarded the Positivist religion
and replaced it by the religion of nationalism. The atmosphere
of the post-war world is redolentwith the ideas of those who
think that if they seek firstthe glorificationof the nation by
every available means, all other things will be added unto
them.
M. MARION MITCHELL
LINDENWOOD COLLEGE
ST. CHARLES, MO.

Emil Durkheim

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Emil Durkheim

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Emile Durkheim and the Philosophy of Nationalism

Author(s): M. Marion Mitchell

is the object of the present study. For out of the gospel of

were governed by laws of their own as immutable as those

1 Les Regles de la metltodesociologique, p. I27; Sociologie et philosophzie,

7Sociologie et philosophie,pp. 56, 78; L'Afducationmorale,p. 274.

where all hearts vibrated in unison, men perfectlyinoffensive

1 Le Suicide, p. 418; Les Regles de la methode

tecturehad a social reality of its own.' The child formedhis

did not originate in him, was neverthelessa part of him, and

'Ibid., p. 206; Sociologie et philosophie,p. 75.

Durkheim's Plan for Political Reconstruction

A survey of the social units which had functioned in the

similarto thatof the professionalunittowardthe state. He

A nationalityis a groupof humanbeings,who forethnical

For all practical purposes Durkheim used the terms

1 Cf. supra, p. go.

French mind, and the greatestnational glory of France lay in

L'Aducation morale,pp. 32, 322.

4 GermanyAbove All, pp. 3, 42.

was weak, and egotism had a free career, great unhappiness

1 Ibid., pp. 222, 429; L'Aducation morale,p. 78.

a precariousexistence. In the same way, it was the established

1 The ElementaryForms of Religious Life, pp. 209-2I0.

3 See Georges Davy, " tmile Durkheim", Revue de me'taphysiqueet de

man.' He thoughtthat education created in man that " social

But above all they must be taught attachmentto the group.'

'L'kducation morale,pp. 75, 82; Akducation et sociologie,p. 6o.

vincial spirit gone forever.' I have found no real evidence

41bid., pp. 91, 94.

losophy of nationalismwas the logical sequel to his search for

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