Republican Nationalism: Nations, Cultures, and Politics
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Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 4-25-2016 12:00 AM Republican Nationalism: Nations, Cultures, and Politics Bojan Ratkovic The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Charles Jones The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Political Science A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Bojan Ratkovic 2016 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the International Relations Commons, and the Political Theory Commons Recommended Citation Ratkovic, Bojan, "Republican Nationalism: Nations, Cultures, and Politics" (2016). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 3700. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/3700 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract This project deals with the ongoing importance of nations, cultures, and politics in the modern world, and with the complex and layered relationships between them. Despite the expanding phenomenon of globalization, which promises to open up borders and tear down the boundaries between peoples, nations remain the most important actors in international politics and nationalism continues to be a potent force throughout the world. This project explores the significance of nations and cultures for politics, with special emphasis on the importance of nationalism and nationalist theory in the twenty-first century. I argue that there are significant gaps in the literature on republican political theory and on nationalism, and I address these gaps by turning to the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau’s philosophy uniquely combines nationalism with republican citizenship and participatory democracy, and his perspective shares many commonalities with David Miller, a contemporary nationalist thinker who combines the principle of nationality with republican citizenship. I argue that the theories of Rousseau and Miller form the foundations of republican nationalism; a unique strand of nationalist theory that is distinct from other perspectives―and from liberal nationalism in particular―and should be treated as separate in the literature. I seek to develop republican nationalism as a theoretical framework that looks at the major questions in the literature from a novel perspective and provides new solutions to some of the discipline’s most persistent problems. By identifying republican nationalism as an approach that is firmly rooted in the wider traditions of republicanism and nationalism, and by demonstrating that this approach is distinct from liberal nationalism and other alternative perspectives, I hope to make valuable contributions to the literature and help move the debate within nationalist theory forward. I conclude by emphasizing the continuing relevance of nations, cultures, and politics in the modern world, and by stressing that nationalism is likely to remain a potent force in world affairs. For this reason, it is still as crucial as ever to treat nations and nationalism as serious subjects of academic study, and to keep the debates currently taking place within nationalist theory moving forward. Keywords Nations, Nationalism, Culture, Politics, Citizenship, Democracy, Participation, Rousseau, Republicanism, Republican Nationalism ii Acknowledgments I want to thank Dr. Charles Jones for his thoughtful supervision and guidance throughout the project, and for his virtually endless patience in helping me work through some of the more difficult theoretical problems. I would also like to thank Drs. Richard Vernon and Douglas Long for their help, advice, and encouragement during the critical early stages of the project. I want to acknowledge the financial support that this project received through the University of Western Ontario Ph.D. Funding Package and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) Program. I must also mention Drs. Leah Bradshaw and William Mathie of Brock University, who first kindled my love for political philosophy during my undergraduate and MA studies. I am extremely grateful to my friends and family for their constant support and encouragement throughout my educational journey, including my mother Snežana, my father Srećko, my brother Igor, my fiancée Stephanie, and my friends Michael Shelton, Miloš Kovač, Nate Anderson, Bojan Mandić, and Martina Tepavčević, among others. Finally, I want to thank my grandparents, Dušan and Milka Obradović, without whose loving care this project, and every other project, would have been impossible. iii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii Preface.............................................................................................................................. viii Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................. 1 1 Nations and Nationalism ................................................................................................ 1 1.1 What Is a Nation? .................................................................................................. 1 1.2 What Is Nationalism? ............................................................................................. 4 1.3 What Is Nationalist Theory? .................................................................................. 5 1.4 Civic vs. Ethnic Nationalism ................................................................................. 9 1.5 Cultural Nationalism ............................................................................................ 13 1.6 Current Debates within Cultural Nationalism ...................................................... 17 Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................................... 20 2 Republican Political Theory ......................................................................................... 20 2.1 What Is Republicanism? ...................................................................................... 21 2.2 Republicanisms .................................................................................................... 26 2.3 The Republicanism vs. Liberalism Debate .......................................................... 36 2.4 Strong Republicans: Civic Humanism vs. Cultural Republicanism .................... 42 Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................... 52 3 Rousseau’s Republicanism .......................................................................................... 52 3.1 Addressing Misconceptions: Rousseau and the French Revolution ..................... 52 3.2 The Two Social Contracts and the Problem of Inequality .................................... 56 3.3 The People as Sovereign, the General Will, and the Moral Republic................... 64 iv 3.4 The Balance of Loves: Amour de soi, Amour-propre, and Compassion .............. 71 3.5 Rousseau’s Republicanism and Democracy ......................................................... 79 Chapter 4 ........................................................................................................................... 81 4 Is Rousseau a Liberal? Comparing Cultural Republicanism and Liberalism .............. 81 4.1 Political Neutrality and Perfectionism .................................................................. 81 4.2 Mill vs. Rousseau: Contrasting Liberal and Republican Perfectionism ............... 87 4.3 Liberal Misrepresentations of Rousseau’s Republicanism ................................... 95 4.4 Cultural Republicanism and Nationalism ........................................................... 104 Chapter 5 ......................................................................................................................... 118 5 Republican Nationalism ............................................................................................. 118 5.1 Nationalist Theory Today ................................................................................... 118 5.2 Republican Citizenship and the Nation ............................................................... 121 5.3 Miller’s Republicanism and Deliberative Democracy ........................................ 129 5.4 Rousseau, Miller, and Republican Nationalism .................................................. 136 Chapter 6 ......................................................................................................................... 144 6 Distinguishing Liberal and Republican Nationalism ................................................. 144 6.1 Yael Tamir and the Right to Culture ................................................................... 145 6.2 David Miller and Encompassing National Identity