The Expression of Potential Political Cultures

I have already explained why the requirement that the political culture that characterizes a nation must be endorsed by co-nationals excludes official cultures in an oppressive society from being considered as nations. But what exactly constitutes national political cultures in the partial or complete absenee of corresponding public spheres, and how can the beliefs and attitudes that constitute such cultures, which I call potential political cultures, be expressed  

Although co-nationals cannot be sure about the beliefs others hold due to the lack of communication in the public sphere, their sense of national belonging and their conviction that this belief of membership is shared by others can nevertheless be verified. The beliefs of the potential political culture can be shared in a vari- 

There are also some other benefits of applying the cautious approach to evaluating the expressed national makeup of an oppressive country. Such an approach would have called into question the officially promoted national structure of the former Soviet Union due to its lack of freedom of speech and expression, which prevented all voices from being heard. The cautious approach would have required a skeptical attitude toward the officially expressed national identities until it could be shown that the official division into national groups and their hierarchy was accepted 

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