This article examines inclusive and exclusive models of national identity and clarifies the conditions under which civic institutions and ethnocultural continuity may support equal national belonging. Design/methodology/approach. A critical conceptual review brings foundational theories of nationalism into dialogue with scholarship on citizenship, boundaries, recognition, and recent empirical studies. Identity content is distinguished from the openness of membership, and Kazakhstan scholarship is used as an illustrative context. Findings. Civic and ethnocultural elements do not determine inclusion by themselves. Their consequences depend on membership and equal standing, effective participation, symbolic recognition, communicative access, and opportunities to contest restrictive rules. Mixed configurations can sustain either inclusive belonging or unequal recognition. Four conditional propositions specify relationships for subsequent empirical investigation. The review does not collect original empirical data or demonstrate the superiority of a hybrid model. Originality/value. The contribution is an integrated diagnostic framework connecting the content of national identity with the institutional and symbolic conditions of inclusion. Its practical value is to support differentiated evaluation of identity policies without assuming that civic rhetoric guarantees equal participation or that historical-cultural continuity necessarily excludes minorities. The framework also identifies questions for future research on the relationship between self-identification, perceived recognition, and access to institutions.