participated in a coalition government with its longtime rival, the African National Congress. With the enactment of a new constitution in 1996, the Nationalists resigned from the government in protest, marking their first time out of government since 1948. In 1998 the party changed its name to the New National Party. After several years of declining popularity, in 2005 the party’s federal council voted in favour of disbanding the party. See also P.W. Botha.
National Public Radio (NPR) U.S. public radio network. It was established by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 1970 to pro¬ vide programming to U.S. noncommercial and educational radio stations. While initially providing programs on the arts, after 1983 the network focused largely on news programming. It features the daily programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered, as well as the interview pro¬ grams Fresh Air and Talk of the Nation.
National Recovery Administration (NRA) (1933-35) U.S. gov¬ ernment agency established to stimulate business recovery during the Great Depression. As part of the National Industrial Recovery Act (1933), the NRA established codes to eliminate unfair trade practices, reduce unemployment, and set minimum wages and maximum hours. The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the act in 1935 because it gave quasi¬ legislative powers to the executive branch. Many of its provisions appeared in subsequent legislation.
National Republican Parly U.S. political party formed after the Jeffersonian Republicans split in 1825. The National Republicans included followers of John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay and opponents of Andrew Jackson. Adams, the incumbent president, ran as the party’s unsuccessful candidate in the 1828 presidential election. Its 1832 presi¬ dential nominee was Clay, whose platform endorsing a high tariff, inter¬ nal improvements, and the Bank of the United States (see Bank War). After losing again to Jackson, the party joined with conservatives and other anti-Jackson forces to form the Whig Party.
National Rifle Association (NRA) Governing organization for the sport of shooting with rifles and pistols. It was founded in Britain in 1860. The U.S. organization, formed in 1871, has a membership of some four million. Both the British and the U.S. groups sponsor regional and national shooting competitions and offer gun safety programs. The U.S. NRA, one of the most powerful political lobbies in the country, has vig¬ orously opposed many legislative proposals for the control of firearms.
National Security Agency (NSA) U.S. intelligence agency respon¬ sible for cryptographic and communications intelligence and security. Established in 1952 by a presidential directive (not by law), it has oper¬ ated largely without Congressional oversight. Its director has always been a general or an admiral. Its mission includes the protection and formu¬ lation of codes, ciphers, and other cryptology as well as the interception, analysis, and solution of coded transmissions. It conducts research into all forms of electronic transmission and operates listening posts around the world for the interception of signals. A target for penetration by for¬ eign intelligence services, until recently it maintained no contact with the public or the press. Though its budget and the number of its employees is secret, the NSA is acknowledged to be far larger than the Central Intel¬ ligence Agency, possessing financial resources that rival those of the world’s largest companies.
National Security Council (NSC) U.S. agency that advises the president on domestic, foreign, and military policies related to national security. With the Central Intelligence Agency, it was established by the 1947 National Security Act. It provides the White House with a foreign- policy-making instrument independent of the State Department. It has four members—the president, vice president, and secretaries of state and defense—and its staff is headed by the national security adviser.
National Socialism or Nazism Totalitarian movement led by Adolf Hitler as head of Germany’s Nazi Party (1920-45). Its roots lay in the tra¬ dition of Prussian militarism and discipline and German Romanticism, which celebrated a mythic past and proclaimed the rights of the excep¬ tional individual over all rules and laws. Its ideology was shaped by Hit¬ ler’s beliefs in German racial superiority and the dangers of communism. It rejected liberalism, democracy, the rule of law, and human rights, stress¬ ing instead the subordination of the individual to the state and the neces¬ sity of strict obedience to leaders. It emphasized the inequality of individuals and “races” and the right of the strong to rule the weak. Politi¬ cally, National Socialism favoured rearmament, reunification of the Ger-
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1334 I nationalism ► Natsume Soseki
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man areas of Europe, expansion into non-German areas, and the purging of “undesirables,” especially Jews. See also fascism.
nationalism Loyalty and devotion to one’s nation or country, espe¬ cially as above loyalty to other groups or to individual interests. Before the era of the nation-state, the primary allegiance of most people was to their immediate locality or religious group. The rise of large, centralized states weakened local authority, and society’s increasing secularization weakened loyalty to religious groups, though shared religion—along with common ethnicity, political heritage, and history—is one of the factors that draws people together in nationalist movements. Early nationalist movements in 18th- and early 19th-century Europe were liberal and inter¬ nationalist, but they gradually became more conservative and parochial. Nationalism is considered a major contributing cause of World War I, World War II, and many other wars of the modern era. In Africa and Asia in the 20th century, nationalist movements often arose in opposition to colonialism. After the fall of the Soviet Union, powerful nationalist sen¬ timents in eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics contributed to ethnic conflicts, such as those in the territories of the former Yugoslavia.
Nationalist Party or Kuomintang or Guomindang
Vgwo-'min-'darjV Political party that governed all or part of mainland China from 1928 to 1949 and subsequently ruled Taiwan. Founded by Song Jiaoren (1882-1913) and led by Sun Yat-sen, it evolved from a revo¬ lutionary league working to overthrow the Qing dynasty into a political party. In the early 1920s the party received guidance from the Soviet Bol¬ shevik party; until 1927 it collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party. Sun’s program, which stressed nationalism, democracy, and people’s live¬ lihood, was ineffectively implemented by his successor, Chiang Kai-shek, who became increasingly conservative and dictatorial. During World War II, Chiang focused on suppressing the Chinese communists at the expense of defending the country from the Japanese; in 1949 the Nationalists were driven from the mainland to Taiwan. There they maintained a monopoly on political power until 1989, when the first legal opposition party won seats in the legislature. The first non-Nationalist president was elected in 2000. See also Wang Jingwei.
nationality Affiliation with a particular nation or sovereign state. People, business coiporations, ships, and aircraft all have nationalities. Nationality is inferior to citizenship, insofar as the latter implies a full set of political privileges and the former does not. Countries have limited rights to determine which of their inhabitants will be their nationals. People generally acquire a nationality by birth within a particular coun¬ try’s territory, by inheritance from one or both parents, or by naturaliza¬ tion. It may change or be augmented or taken away if a country cedes control of the territory where one lives to another country.