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Subjects · Leaving Cert Politics & Society

Leaving Cert Politics & Society: Nationalism & imagined communities

How often Nationalism & imagined communities comes up on the Politics & Society papers, every year it was asked, and questions to try.

HL Asked on 4 of the last 7 Higher Level papers, most recently in 2025.

OL Asked on 3 of the last 7 Ordinary Level papers, most recently in 2025.

Nationalism & imagined communities, Higher Level(7 marks)

Quick ones on Nationalism & imagined communities.

(a)How did Benedict Anderson describe the nation?
  1. As a natural biological group
  2. As an imagined community
  3. As one extended family
(b)According to Anderson, what first made nations imaginable?
  1. The invention of the railway
  2. Religious authority
  3. Print capitalism
(c)What does Thomas Hylland Eriksen mean by calling ethnicity 'relational'?
  1. It forms through contrast between us and them
  2. It depends only on sharing the same ancestors
  3. It is fixed at birth by a person's biology
Show the answers

(a) As an imagined community

(b) Print capitalism

(c) It forms through contrast between us and them

Your turn: Higher Level questions on Nationalism & imagined communities.

Higher Level

Asked on 4 of the last 7 Higher Level papers, most recently in 2025.

Every paper, year by year

YearWhere it came up
2025Q7
2024Q3a
2023Not asked
2022Not asked
2021Not asked
2019Q6a, Q6b
2018Q5a

Links open the State Examinations Commission’s paper for that year.

More Nationalism & imagined communities questions

Nationalism & imagined communities, 3 marks

Eriksen says globalisation 'disembeds' life from place. What does re-embedding describe?

  1. Firms moving their money and jobs offshore to cut tax
  2. States merging into one larger union
  3. People seeking local roots and identity again
Show the answer

People seeking local roots and identity again

Eriksen argues globalisation provokes a reaction: people look for security in local, ethnic, national or religious identities, sometimes as identity politics.

Ordinary Level

Asked on 3 of the last 7 Ordinary Level papers, most recently in 2025.

Every paper, year by year

YearWhere it came up
2025Q1k
2024Not asked
2023Not asked
2022Not asked
2021Not asked
2019Q1j, Q5
2018Q1j, Q7

Links open the State Examinations Commission’s paper for that year.

More Nationalism & imagined communities questions

Nationalism & imagined communities, 3 marks

Benedict Anderson called nations 'imagined communities'. Why 'imagined'?

  1. Nations do not really have borders or governments
  2. Only artists and writers can belong to a nation
  3. Members never meet most others but still feel a bond
Show the answer

Members never meet most others but still feel a bond

Anderson (1983) argued that newspapers and books in shared languages let people picture themselves as one nation, though they will never meet most fellow members.

Nationalism & imagined communities, 3 marks

Thomas Hylland Eriksen sees ethnic identity as 'relational'. What does this mean?

  1. It never changes over time or between places
  2. It is defined by contrast between us and them
  3. It is based only on family and blood relations
Show the answer

It is defined by contrast between us and them

Eriksen argues ethnic groups are made by drawing boundaries with others. Identity is socially constructed and can harden when people feel threatened, for example by rapid globalisation.

Nationalism & imagined communities, 2 marks

Which is a benefit of a secure sense of ethnic identity?

  1. A sense of belonging and self-confidence
  2. A fear and distrust of all other groups
  3. A refusal to meet or mix with any newcomers to the area
Show the answer

A sense of belonging and self-confidence

A confident identity gives belonging and pride. The course notes that an insecure or threatened identity can instead lead to fear, hostility and conflict with other groups.

Other Politics & Society topics

All of Leaving Cert Politics & Society