Liberal nationalism is a kind of
nationalismNationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation...
identified by political philosophers who believe in a non-xenophobic form of nationalism compatible with liberal values of
freedomPolitical freedom is the absence of interference with the sovereignty of an individual by the use of coercion or aggression.The opposite of a free society is a totalitarian state, which highly restricts political freedom in order to regulate almost every aspect of behavior...
, tolerance,
equalityEgalitarianism has two distinct definitions in modern English. It is defined either as a political doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals and have the same political, economic, social, and civil rights or as a social philosophy advocating the removal of economic...
, and
individual rightsIndividual rights refer to the rights of individuals, in contrast with group rights. An individual right is the sanction of independent action. Both natural and legal conceptions or rights may distinguish between individual and group rights, although natural rights theories often limit themselves...
.
Ernest RenanErnest Renan was a French philosopher and writer, devoted to his native province of Brittany...
and
John Stuart MillJohn Stuart Mill , English philosopher, political theorist, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential liberal thinker of the 19th century whose works on liberty justified freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control...
are often thought to be early liberal nationalists. Liberal nationalists often defend the value of national identity by saying that individuals need a national identity in order to lead meaningful, autonomous lives and that liberal democratic polities need national identity in order to function properly.
Liberal nationalism, also known as
civic nationalism or
civil nationalism, is the form of nationalism in which the
stateA sovereign state is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state...
derives
political legitimacyThe word legitimacy is often interpreted in a normative or a positive way. In a normative sense, legitimacy gets greater attention as a part of moral philosophy.A status conferred by the people on the government's officials, acts, and institution through their belief that the government's actions...
from the active participation of its
citizenryCitizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, or national community.Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
(see
popular sovereigntyPopular sovereignty or the sovereignty of the people is the belief that the legitimacy of the state is created by the will or consent of its people, who are the source of all political power. It is closely associated with the social contract philosophers, among whom are Thomas Hobbes, John Locke,...
), from the degree to which it represents the "general will".
Liberal nationalism is a kind of
nationalismNationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation...
identified by political philosophers who believe in a non-xenophobic form of nationalism compatible with liberal values of
freedomPolitical freedom is the absence of interference with the sovereignty of an individual by the use of coercion or aggression.The opposite of a free society is a totalitarian state, which highly restricts political freedom in order to regulate almost every aspect of behavior...
, tolerance,
equalityEgalitarianism has two distinct definitions in modern English. It is defined either as a political doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals and have the same political, economic, social, and civil rights or as a social philosophy advocating the removal of economic...
, and
individual rightsIndividual rights refer to the rights of individuals, in contrast with group rights. An individual right is the sanction of independent action. Both natural and legal conceptions or rights may distinguish between individual and group rights, although natural rights theories often limit themselves...
.
Ernest RenanErnest Renan was a French philosopher and writer, devoted to his native province of Brittany...
and
John Stuart MillJohn Stuart Mill , English philosopher, political theorist, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential liberal thinker of the 19th century whose works on liberty justified freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control...
are often thought to be early liberal nationalists. Liberal nationalists often defend the value of national identity by saying that individuals need a national identity in order to lead meaningful, autonomous lives and that liberal democratic polities need national identity in order to function properly.
Liberal nationalism, also known as
civic nationalism or
civil nationalism, is the form of nationalism in which the
stateA sovereign state is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state...
derives
political legitimacyThe word legitimacy is often interpreted in a normative or a positive way. In a normative sense, legitimacy gets greater attention as a part of moral philosophy.A status conferred by the people on the government's officials, acts, and institution through their belief that the government's actions...
from the active participation of its
citizenryCitizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, or national community.Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
(see
popular sovereigntyPopular sovereignty or the sovereignty of the people is the belief that the legitimacy of the state is created by the will or consent of its people, who are the source of all political power. It is closely associated with the social contract philosophers, among whom are Thomas Hobbes, John Locke,...
), from the degree to which it represents the "general will". It is often seen as originating with
Jean-Jacques RousseauJean Jacques Rousseau was a major philosopher, writer, and composer of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, whose political philosophy influenced the French Revolution and the development of modern political and educational thought.His novel, Emile: or, On Education, which he considered his most...
and especially the social contract theories which take their name from his 1762 book
The Social Contract.
Liberal nationalism lies within the
traditionThe word tradition comes from the Latin traditionem, acc. of traditio which means "handing over, passing on", and is used in a number of ways in the English language:...
s of
rationalismIn epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
and
liberalismLiberalism is the belief in the importance of individual freedom. This belief is widely accepted today throughout the world, and was recognized as an important value by many philosophers throughout history...
, but as a form of nationalism it is contrasted with
ethnic nationalismEthnic nationalism is a form of nationalism wherein the "nation" is defined in terms of ethnicity. Whatever specific ethnicity is involved, ethnic nationalism always includes some element of descent from previous generations...
. Membership of the civic
nationA nation is a body of people who share a real or imagined common history, culture, language or ethnic origin. The development and conceptualization of the nation is closely related to the development of modern industrial states and nationalist movements in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries,...
is considered voluntary, as in
Ernest RenanErnest Renan was a French philosopher and writer, devoted to his native province of Brittany...
's classical definition of the nation as a "daily plebiscite" characterized by the "will to live together". Civic-national ideals influenced the development of
representative democracyElectoral democracies require a majority of the votes cast. Many representative democracies are constitutional republics in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law".- Criticisms :...
in countries such as the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
(see the
United States Declaration of IndependenceThe United States Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire...
of 1776, and the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the CitizenThe Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is a fundamental document of the French Revolution, defining the individual and collective rights of all the estates of the realm as universal. Influenced by the doctrine of natural rights, the rights of Man are universal: valid at all times...
of 1789).
States in which civic forms of nationalism predominate are often (but not always) ex-
settler coloniesSettler colonialism is a policy of conquering a land to send settlers in order to shape its demographic similarly as in the metropole. This practice contrasts with exploitation colonialism, a policy of conquering distant lands not with the intention to supplant its population, but rather to exploit...
such as the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
,
BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean...
, and
ArgentinaArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
, in which ethnic nationalism is difficult to construct on account of the diversity of ethnicities within the state. A notable exception is
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
, an ex-
plantation colonyA plantation is a large farm or estate, usually in a tropical or subtropical country, where crops are grown for sale in distant markets, rather than for local consumption. The term plantation is informal and not precisely defined....
, where civic nationalism has predominated due to the country's unparalleled linguistic, religious and ethnic diversity. Civic-nationalist states are often characterized by adoption of the
jus soliJus soli or birthright citizenship, is a right by which nationality or citizenship can be recognised to any individual born in the territory of the related state...
(law of the soil) for granting citizenship in the country, deeming all persons born within the integral territory of the state citizens and members of the nation, regardless of their parents' origin. This serves to link national identity not with a people but rather with the territory and its history, and the history of previous occupants of the territory unconnected to the current occupants are often appropriated for national myths.
Even though nationalist parties in Europe generally have ethnicity as their uniting factor, there have been notable exceptions. The
Scottish National PartyThe Scottish National Party is a centre-left political party which campaigns for Scottish independence. In the last few decades, the SNP has normally polled the second highest number of votes for a political party in Scotland. However, the 2009 European Election saw the party top the poll with...
and
Plaid CymruPlaid Cymru is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union.Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966...
in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
rarely refer to ethnicity in their nationalism. This is usually in contrast to the ethnic nationalist
British National PartyThe British National Party is a far-right, whites-only political party in the United Kingdom, formed as a splinter group of the British National Front by John Tyndall in 1982. The party's current chairman is Nick Griffin, himself a former national organiser of the National Front.The BNP is not...
. The SNP and Plaid Cymru were the first political parties to field successfully elected candidates of an ethnic minority background in the devolved institutions of their respective nations -
Bashir AhmadBashir Ahmad was a Scottish National Party politician. He was elected to the Scottish Parliament to represent the Glasgow region at the 2007 election, and was the first MSP to be elected from an Asian-Scots or Muslim background.- Early life :Born in Karachi, British India , he emigrated to...
in the
Scottish ParliamentThe Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood" , is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
,
Mohammad AsgharMohammad Asghar, AM is a Welsh politician. Representing Plaid Cymru, he won election to the Welsh Assembly in 2007 on the list for South Wales East...
in the Welsh Assembly; both are
MuslimsIslam in the United Kingdom is about the development of Islam in the United Kingdom since its formation in 1707. Islam was not legalized until the Trinitarian Act in 1812, though Muslims were present prior to this...
of
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
i origin.
See also
- National liberalism
- National conservatism
National conservatism is a political term used to describe a variant of conservatism which concentrates more on "national interests and traditional social/ethical views" than standard conservatism, while not being outspokenly nationalist or supporting a far right approach...
- Statolatry
Statolatry, which combines idolatry with the state, first appeared in Giovanni Gentile's Doctrine of Fascism, published in 1931 under Mussolini's name...
- Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of voluntary civic and social organizations and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society as opposed to the force-backed structures of a state and commercial institutions of the market.-Definition:There are myriad definitions of civil...
- Community of place
A community of place or place-based community is a community of people who are bound together because of where they reside, work, visit or otherwise spend a continuous portion of their time...
- Imagined community
- Nation-building
For nation-building in the sense of enhancing the capacity of state institutions, building state-society relations, and also external interventions see State-building...
- Social geography
- Cultural nationalism
Cultural nationalism is a form of nationalism in which the nation is defined by a shared culture, as opposed to, for instance, its ethnicity or its institutions....
External links