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The Ideological War Within the West

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The Ideological War Within the West The Ideological War Within the West JOHN FONTE EARLY a year before the The NGOs also insisted that the of the evolutionary process. There will September 11 attacks, US ratify all major UN human rights be wars and terrorism, but no alterna- news stories provided a treaties and drop legal reservations to tive ideology with a universal appeal N preview of the trans- treaties already ratified. For example, will seriously challenge the principles national politics of the future. In Oc- in 1994 the US ratified the UN Con- of Western liberal democracy on a glo- tober 2000, in preparation for the UN vention on the Elimination of Racial bal scale. Conference Against Racism, about 50 Discrimination (CERD), but attached The September 11 attacks notwith- American nongovernmental organiza- reservations on treaty requirements re- standing, there is nothing beyond lib- tions (NGOs) called on the UN ‘to stricting free speech that were ‘incom- eral democracy ‘towards which we hold the United States accountable for patible with the Constitution’. Yet could expect to evolve’. Fukuyama the intractable and persistent problem leading NGOs demanded that the US concluded that there will be challenges of discrimination’. drop all reservations and ‘comply’ with from those who resist progress, ‘but The NGOs included Amnesty In- the CERD treaty by accepting UN time and resources are on the side of ternational-USA (AI-USA), Human definitions of ‘free speech’ and elimi- modernity’. Rights Watch (HRW), the Arab- nating the ‘vast racial disparities in ev- Indeed, but is ‘modernity’ on the American Institute, National Council ery aspect of American life’ (housing, side of liberal democracy? Fukuyama is of Churches, the NAACP, the Mexi- health, welfare, justice, etc.). very likely right that the current crisis can-American Legal Defense and Edu- HRW complained that the US of- with radical Islam will be overcome and cational Fund, and others. Their fered ‘no remedies’ for these dispari- that there will be no serious ideologi- spokesman stated that their demands ties but ‘simply supported equality of cal challenge originating outside of ‘had been repeatedly raised with Fed- opportunity’ and indicated ‘no willing- Western civilization. However, the ac- eral and State officials [in the US] but ness to comply’ with CERD. Of course, tivities of the NGOs suggest that there to little effect. In frustration we now to ‘comply’ with the NGO interpreta- is already an alternative ideology to lib- turn to the United Nations’. In other tion of the CERD treaty, the US would eral democracy within the West that words, the NGOs, unable to enact the have to abandon the Constitution’s has been steadily evolving for years. policies they favoured through the nor- free speech guarantees, bypass federal- Thus, it is entirely possible that mal processes of American constitu- ism, and ignore the concept of major- modernity—30 or 40 years hence— tional democracy—the Congress, state ity rule—since practically nothing in will witness not the final triumph of governments, even the federal the NGO agenda is supported by the liberal democracy, but the emergence courts—appealed to authority outside American electorate. of a new transnational hybrid régime of American democracy and its Con- All of this suggests that we have not that is post-liberal democratic, and in stitution. reached the final triumph of liberal the American context, post-Constitu- At the UN Conference against democracy proclaimed by Francis tional and post-American. This alter- Racism, which was held in Durban two Fukuyama in his groundbreaking 1989 native ideology, ‘transnational progres- weeks before September 11, American essay. sivism’, constitutes a universal and NGOs supported ‘reparations’ from modern worldview that challenges Western nations for the historic trans- POST-SEPTEMBER 11 both the liberal democratic nation- atlantic slave trade and developed In October 2001, Fukuyama stated that state in general and the American resolutions that condemned only the his ‘end of history’ thesis remained régime in particular. West, without mentioning the larger valid: that after the defeat of commu- traffic in African slaves sent to Islamic nism and fascism, no serious ideologi- TRANSNATIONAL PROGRES- lands. The NGOs even endorsed a cal competitor to Western-style liberal SIVISM resolution denouncing free market democracy was likely to emerge in the The following could be considered the capitalism as a ‘fundamentally flawed future. Thus, in terms of political phi- core propositions that define trans- system’. losophy, liberal democracy is the end national progressivism: ▲ R E V I E W JUNE 2002 3 ‘Identity’ group more important than Deconstruction of national narratives. tellectual struggle over globalization. the individual citizen. For transnational Transnational ideologues attack na- Its adherents imply that one is either progressivism the key political unit is tional symbols and identity in demo- in step with globalization, and thus for- not the individual citizen, who forms cratic nation-states in the West. In ward-looking, or one is a backward voluntary associations and works with October 2000, a UK government report anti-globalist. Liberal democrats (who fellow citizens regardless of race, sex, denounced the concept of ‘Britishness’. are internationalists and support free or national origin, but the ascriptive In the US, the proposed ‘National His- trade and market economics) must re- group (racial, ethnic, or gender) into tory Standards’, recommended altering ply that this is a false dichotomy—that which one is born. the traditional historical narrative. In the critical argument is not between A dichotomy of groups. Trans- Israel, a ‘post-Zionist’ intelligentsia has globalists and anti-globalists, but in- national ideologists have incorporated proposed that Israel consider itself stead over the form global engagement the essentially Hegelian Marxist ‘privi- multicultural and deconstruct its iden- should take in the coming decades: will leged vs marginalized’ dichotomy: tity as a Jewish state. it be transnationalist or international- oppressor vs victim groups, with im- Promotion of the concept of post- ist? migrant groups designated as victims. national citizenship. In an important The social base of transnational Group proportionalism as the goal of academic paper, Rutgers Law Profes- progressivism constitutes a rising ‘fairness’. Transnational progressiv- sor Linda Bosniak asks hopefully ‘Can postnational intelligentsia (interna- ism assumes that ‘victim’ groups advocates of postnational citizenship tional law professors, NGO activists, should be represented in all profes- foundation officers, UN bureaucrats, sions roughly proportionate to their EU administrators, corporate execu- percentage of the population. If not, The activities of the tives, and politicians.) When social there is a problem of ‘under-represen- movements such as ‘transnationalism’ tation’. NGOs suggest that and ‘global governance’ are depicted The values of all dominant institutions as the result of social forces or the to be changed to reflect the perspectives of there is already an movement of history, a certain imper- the victim groups. Transnational sonal inevitability is implied. In the progressives insist that it is not enough alternative ideology to 20th century, however, the Bolshevik to have proportional representation of Revolution, the National Socialist minorities in major institutions if these liberal democracy revolution, the New Deal, the Reagan institutions continue to reflect the Revolution, the Gaullist national re- worldview of the ‘dominant’ culture. within the West that construction in France, and the cre- Instead, the distinct world views of eth- has been steadily ation of the EU were not inevitable, nic, gender, and linguistic minorities but were the result of the exercise of must be represented within these in- evolving for years political will by élites. Similarly, stitutions. transnationalism, multiculturalism, The ‘demographic imperative’. The and global governance, like ‘diversity’, demographic imperative tells us that ultimately succeed in decoupling the are ideological tools championed by major demographic changes are occur- concept of citizenship from the nation- activist élites, not impersonal forces of ring throughout the world. The tradi- state in prevailing political thought?’ history. The success or failure of these tional paradigm based on the assimila- values-laden concepts will ultimately tion of immigrants into an existing CONCEPTUAL TOOL depend upon the political will and ef- civic culture is obsolete and must be Transnationalism is the next stage of fectiveness of these élites. changed to a framework that promotes multicultural ideology. Like multicul- ‘diversity’, defined as group propor- turalism, transnationalism is a concept HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS tionalism. that provides élites with both an em- A good part of the energy for transna- The redefinition of democracy and pirical tool (a plausible analysis of what tional progressivism is provided by ‘democratic ideals’. Transnational pro- is) and an ideological framework (a vi- human rights activists, who consis- gressives have been altering the defi- sion of what should be). Transnational tently evoke ‘evolving norms of inter- nition of ‘democracy’ from that of a advocates argue that globalization re- national law’. The main legal conflict system of majority rules among equal quires some form of ‘global governance’ between traditional liberal democrats
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