MODERNITY AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF COLLECTIVE IDENTITIES

This paper analyses in a comparative framework the relations between c onstruction of collective identity and those of state-civil society re lations in three modern settings-namely, in a general way Europe, the United States and Japan-the three major modern industrialized societie s, with a brief comparative glance at Latin America. This analysis is based on the assumption first that collective identity is not naturall y generated but socially constructed: it is the intentional or non-int entional consequence of interactions which on their turn are socially patterned and structured. Collective identity depends on special proce sses of induction of the members in the collectivity, ranging from var ious rites of initiation to various collective rituals, in which the a ttribute of ''similarity'' among its members, as against the strangene ss, the differences, the distinction of the other, is symbolically con structed and defined. Constructing boundaries and constructing a basis for trust solidarity and communal equality are two aspects of such pr ocesses.