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conceptualizations of group affiliation. Conversely, my second hypothesis is that if there
is a relatively harmonious social environment, then the expected behavior from the two
dichotomous groups will reduce their rhetoric, thereby decreasing the ethnic in-
group/out-group expanse. Hence, the independent variable is elite actions, or inactions,
that mollify in-group/out-group distance and the dependent variable is a marked decrease
in the remoteness between the two group affiliations. The null hypothesis would predict
no explicit or implicit distancing or amelioration between the groups regardless of
contextual circumstances. Indeed, these hypotheses could be falsified if the empirical
evidence elucidated that under conditions of contextual enmity there were modest or no
elite attempts to propagate the positive virtues of the “self” and the negative attributes of
the “other” respectively or if under periods of relative harmony, there still existed active
elite attempts to increase the distance between the in-group and out-group.
Research Design
In conducting this study I will expose the theoretical underpinnings of the relevant
literature on social identity (including the necessity of the “other”, both foreign and
domestic), the rival visions of national identity (including civic versus exclusionary, and
the significance of language, boundaries and institutions), and the competing schools of
nationalism (primordial, constructivist and instrumentalist). Moreover, with regard to
contemporary Russian identity, I will explicate the unexpected yet essential role that
democratization has contributed to the facilitation of elite manipulated identity
construction. I will examine the trajectory and characteristics prevalent in the idea of
identity over three periods and will explain why certain concepts of identity have
succeeded while others have failed. First, I will examine the development of identity
Convention