civic nationalism

 

  • According to Donald Ipperciel, historically, civic nationalism was a determining factor in the development of modern constitutional and democratic forms of government, whereas
    ethnic nationalism has been more associated with authoritarian rule and even dictatorship.

  • Even the paradigmatic cases of civic nationalism, France and America, would cease to count as civic nationalism, since they have a crucial cultural component.

  • In this case, Brubaker argues, there is very little ethnic nationalism around, since on this view an emphasis on common culture has to be coded as a species of civic nationalism.

  • If, however, ethnic nationalism is interpreted broadly, as ethnocultural, while civic nationalism is interpreted narrowly, as involving a cultural conception of citizenship,
    the problem is the opposite: ‘civic nationalism gets defined out of existence, and virtually all nationalisms would be coded as ethnic or cultural’.

  • [22] Yack rejects Renan’s notion of “voluntary” civic nationality as an illusion, arguing this “misrepresents political reality as surely as the ethnonationalist myths it
    is designed to combat”, going on to state how cultural memories form an inseparable part of every national political identity.

  • [8] German philosopher Jürgen Habermas has argued that immigrants to a liberal-democratic state need not assimilate into the host culture but only accept the principles of
    the country’s constitution (constitutional patriotism).

  • Civic nationalism, also known as democratic nationalism and liberal nationalism, is a form of nationalism that adheres to traditional liberal values of freedom, tolerance,
    equality, individual rights and is not based on ethnocentrism.

  • In theory, a civic nation or state does not aim to promote one culture over another.

  • [1][2] Civic nationalists often defend the value of national identity by saying that individuals need it as a partial shared aspect of their identity (an upper identity) in
    order to lead meaningful, autonomous lives[3] and that democratic polities need a national identity to function properly.

  • It highlights both communities’ common culture, heritage and traditions as well as economic, political, and social rights.

  • In that sense, all nations are ethnic nations […] Brubaker elaborates on this, claiming that there are two different ways of mapping culture onto the ethnic-civic distinction.

  • The Scottish National Party[13][14][15] and Plaid Cymru,[15] which advocate independence of their respective nations from the United Kingdom, proclaim themselves to be civic
    nationalist parties, in which they advocate the independence and popular sovereignty of the people living in their nation’s society, not individual ethnic groups.

  • Thus, a “civic nation” defines itself not by culture but by political institutions and liberal principles, which its citizens pledge to uphold.

 

Works Cited

[‘Auer, Stefan (2004). Liberal Nationalism in Central Europe. Routledge. p. 5. ISBN 1134378602. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
2. ^ Tamir, Yael. 1993. Liberal Nationalism. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-07893-9[page needed]; Will Kymlicka. 1995. Multicultural
Citizenship. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-827949-3[page needed]; David Miller. 1995. On Nationality. Archived 1 June 2000 at the Wayback Machine Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-828047-5.
3. ^ Kymlicka, Will. 1995. Multicultural Citizenship.
Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-827949-3. For criticism, see: Patten, Alan. 1999. “The Autonomy Argument for Liberal Nationalism.” Nations and Nationalism. 5(1): 1-17.
4. ^ Miller, David. 1995. On Nationality. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-828047-5.
For criticism, see: Abizadeh, Arash. 2002. “Does Liberal Democracy Presuppose a Cultural Nation? Four Arguments.” American Political Science Review 96 (3): 495-509; Abizadeh, Arash. 2004. “Liberal Nationalist versus Postnational Social Integration.”
Nations and Nationalism 10(3): 231-250.
5. ^ Ipperciel, Donald (2007). “Constitutional democracy and civic nationalism”. Nations and Nationalism. 13 (3): 395–416. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8129.2007.00293.x.
6. ^ Nancy Foner; Patric Simon (2015). Fear,
Anxiety, and National Identity Immigration and Belonging in North America and Western Europe. Russell Sage Foundation. p. 38. ISBN 9781610448536.
7. ^ Özkırımlı, Umut. (2005). Contemporary Debates on Nationalism: A Critical Introduction. Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan. pp.27-28
8. ^ Jump up to:a b c ANNA STILZ. “Civic Nationalism and Language Policy”. Philosophy & Public Affairs. 37 (3): 257.
9. ^ Ernest Renan. “What is a Nation?”, 1882; cf. Chaim Gans, The Limits of Nationalism, Cambridge
University Press, 2003, p. 11.
10. ^ Tamir, Yael (Yuli) (11 May 2019). “Not So Civic: Is There a Difference Between Ethnic and Civic Nationalism?”. Annual Review of Political Science. 22 (1): 419–434. doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-022018-024059. ISSN
1094-2939.
11. ^ Renan, Ernest (11 March 1882). “What Is A Nation” (PDF). UCParis. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
12. ^ Michael Keating (1996). Nations Against the State The New Politics of Nationalism in Quebec, Catalonia and Scotland. Palgrave
Macmillan. p. 6. ISBN 9780230374348.
13. ^ Michael O’Neill (2004). Devolution and British Politics. Pearson/Longman. pp. 92–. ISBN 978-0-582-47274-7.
14. ^ Trevor C. Salmon; Mark F. Imber (6 June 2008). Issues In International Relations. Taylor
& Francis. pp. 50–. ISBN 978-0-203-92659-8.
15. ^ Jump up to:a b Brubaker, Rogers (2004). Ethnicity Without Groups. Harvard University Press. p. 134. ISBN 0674015398.
16. ^ “Els valors republicans com a pilar de la nostra societat” (in Catalan).
17. ^
Aldrich, Alan (17 August 2018). “Cypriotism in the Twenty-First Century”. Bella Caledonia. Scotland. Archived from the original on 21 August 2018. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
18. ^ Colin Hay; Anand Menon (18 January 2007). European Politics. OUP Oxford.
p. 125. ISBN 978-0-19-928428-3.
19. ^ Snay, Mitchell (2007). Fenians, Freedmen, and Southern Whites: Race and Nationality in the Era of Reconstruction. Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 9780807132739.
20. ^ Tamir, Yael (Yuli) (2019). “Not
So Civic: Is There a Difference Between Ethnic and Civic Nationalism?”. Annual Review of Political Science. 22 (1): 419–434. doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-022018-024059. ISSN 1094-2939.
21. ^ Jump up to:a b Yack, Bernard (1996). “The myth of the civic
nation”. Critical Review. 10 (2): 193–211. doi:10.1080/08913819608443417.
22. ^ Özkırımlı, Umut. (2005). Contemporary Debates on Nationalism: A Critical Introduction. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
2. Tournier-Sol, Karine (2015). “Reworking
the Eurosceptic and Conservative Traditions into a Populist Narrative: UKIP’s Winning Formula?”. Journal of Common Market Studies. 53 (1): 140–56. doi:10.1111/jcms.12208. S2CID 142738345.
Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/infomatique/3742155164/’]