Nationalism in left-wing ideologies of political economy

Michael Freeden's concept of nationalism as a 'thin-centred ideology' (Freeden, 1998) foregrounds the political salience of nationalism through its frequent 'inhabiting' of other ideologies, while restricting its influence as an isolated ideational formation to exceptional circumstances. In this article, I highlight the fruitfulness of this approach for the realm of political economy through an analysis of the nationalist 'imprint' on left-wing ideologies, both in Western countries and in the Global South. The article argues that the approach provides a useful complementary perspective allowing for the study of nationalist ideology in circumstances where we are unable to isolate it in explanatory terms. However, based on the extensive evidence of the political salience of nationalism for left-wing political economy, it is also suggested that the approach is most fruitfully applied without a hierarchical 'thick/thin' dichotomy that a priori subordinates nationalism to a dominant 'host' ideology.