Atlas / Claim checks / Nationalism is inherently right-wing.
Is nationalism right wing? The claim, measured
“Nationalism is inherently right-wing.”
Measured against Romantic Nationalism and National Socialism
Strongest case for the claim
The most destructive nationalisms of the twentieth century were coded far right on culture and membership, and contemporary European nationalism is concentrated in parties that also oppose immigration and social liberalisation.
Strongest case against
Nationalism entered European politics as the enemy of dynastic empire, allied with republicanism and constitutionalism. Mazzini, the Irish, Polish and Greek independence movements, the anti-colonial movements of Asia and Africa, and Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party are all nationalist and all coded left of centre on culture. The variable that does the work is the membership rule, not the fact of national feeling.
What the coordinates show. Nationalism is not a position on this map at all. It is a claim about the correct unit of political community, which can be attached to almost any set of coordinates. The organisations in this dataset that call themselves nationalist span thirteen points on economics and ten on membership — most of both axes.
This page states both cases because the atlas is not in the business of settling arguments by assertion. Where the underlying dispute is conceptual rather than factual, that is said plainly rather than resolved.
Full comparisonCheck it yourself
The interactive atlas holds 319 organisations on six independent axes with the evidence for every score. Paste any claim that equates two political things and it will find them and report the measurement.