Two approaches to analyze whether citizens’ national identity is affected by country, age, and political orientation: a fuzzy eco-apostle model

Abstract

The study analyzes national identity using the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) database for the waves of 2003 and 2013. First, the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and the Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MGCFA) are used to find the dimensions of the items included in the national identity module. Second, the civic and ethnic dimensions are analyzed through both a fuzzy clustering analysis and an extended apostle model to classify citizens’ national identity as the following: (1) post nationalists; (2) ethnic oriented; (3) civic-oriented; (4) credentialists. Third, the fuzzy eco-extended apostle model is applied to analyze 16 different national identity categories, for which the four pure mentioned categories are further studied. Fourth, the effects of some social characteristics, such as country-year, political orientation-year, and age-year, on the respective pure national Identity categories are studied using two distinct approaches, namely, contingency tables and conditional probability ratios. Results show that citizens tend to be more pure-credentialist than any other category and that social characteristics play a determinant role in explaining each category of citizens’ national identity.