82:3 July 1999
Nationalism 

Advisory Editor: Nenad Miscevic

What is the proper place of ethnic, national or cultural identities within the network of institutions and political and cultural organizations that shape our lives? Nationalism claims that national identity should occupy the center-stage of political life, shaping the issues of state sovereignty (secession), of distribution of public goods, and of the nature of the cultural life a community may wish to create for itself. Different kinds of nationalisms differ as to the normative strength and universality of their claims.

In this decade nationalism has been resurrected as an important political force, both in its traditional guise (in Europe and Asia) and in its multi-culturalist reincarnations (in North America). Yet philosophers have been less attentive to the phenomenon of nationalism than it deserves, lagging in this respect behind both sociologists and political scientists. The present issue of The Monist is intended to spur the discussion by bringing together contributions from various political and even cultural backgrounds, including countries in which the issue of nationalism is a burning political problem of much more than academic interest.

In order to focus the discussion we suggest that authors concentrate especially on the following two topics: First, the very concept of nationalism: the long and arduous analytic task of delimiting the domain and distingushing various forms of nationalist claims not least as to their factual presuppositions, political content, normative strength, and universality. Understanding nationalism is a first step towards coming to terms with it, and if there is any issue where the lack of understanding is a clear impediment to intelligent political action, then nationalism is certainly an issue of this sort.

Second, nationalism is an obvious test-case in the debate between liberals and communitarians. The "ethno-national" community is an obvious candidate example of a non-voluntary association of common origin, culture and language, i.e. of the kind especially popular with contemporary communitarians. On the other hand, the nation is a modern variety of community and it would perhaps not be very appealing to more traditionally oriented communitarian thinkers who focus upon pre-modern kinds of community. How much prominence should communitarians accord it, and how much weight can liberals grant to it? Which varieties of nationalist (or multiculturalist) claims should be given credence and are there any that are justified in the eyes of both liberals and communitarians?

Table of Contents:

Kai Nielsen 

Cosmpolitan nationalism

Michel Seymour 

On redefining the nation

Jocelyn Couture 

Cosmopolitan democracy and liberal nationalism

Daniel M. Weinstock 

National partiality

Alan Patten 

Liberal egalitarianism and the case for supporting national cultures

Gillian Brock 

The new nationalisms