Chapter 3 (CPO2001 Exam I)

Society: 

• A broad term that refers to complex human organization

• Collection of people bound by shared institutions that define how human relations are conducted

• All societies are different

Ethnicity:

• Any specific attributes and society institutions that make one group of people culturally different from others.

• Language, religions, geography, customs, history, and others.

• Ascription– an identity assigned at birth, largely fixed.

• No “master list”; what differentiates groups in one place may not be important in another (Serbia– religion, Canada– language).

• Ethnicity as a “social construction”– not inherently political.

National identity:

• National identity binds people through common political aspirations (such as sovereignty).

• National identity is inherently political (ethnicity or ethnic identity is not).

• Defined as a sense of belonging to a nation and a belief in its political aspirations.

• A demand for greater freedom for a group and greater equality vis-á-vis other groups.

• Often, but not always, develops from existing ethnic identity.

Nationalism vs. national identity

• Nationalism as a price in one’s people and belief in sovereign destiny for the nation

  • Seek to create or preserve one’s own nation (political group) through an independent state– ideally without outsiders.

• Ethnic identity without national identity?

  • Yes– various ethnic groups that do not have a national consciousness.

• National identity without ethnic identity?

  • Yes– civic nationalism: United States (i.e. patriotism), India, Great Britain, Canada, etc.

Citizenship: individual’s or group’s relationship to the state

• Swear allegiance to the state

• State provides benefits

  • Security (internal/external), basic needs (education, infrastructure, etc.), governance

• People have obligations in return

  • Pay taxes, military service, abide by laws, vote, etc.

Citizenship and ethnic identity:

• Ethnicity is fixed but citizenship is not

• Citizenship can be changed by an individual or state

  • CItizenship is potentially more inclusive concept than ethnicity or national identity

• The three are often connected– an ethnic group forms the nation, and they respect the interests of the citizens

Patriotism and nationalism

• Patriotism– requires the existence of a state

  • CItizenship gives rise to patriotism

  • Defined as pride in one’s state

  • Symbols of state wrapped up in patriotism

• Nationalism: requires the existence of a people (does not require the existence of a state)

  • United by a common (national) identity

  • Desire to gain/maintain sovereignty/independence moves nationalism toward national identity (exclusionary)

    • However, civic nationalism does a require a state (“I am connected to the people” is civic nationalism, while “I am connected to the state” is patriotism)

Nations, states, and citizenship

• Nationalism promoted by states and elites– top-down (form of shared identity).

• The idea that people would fight and die for abstract concepts like nation identity was a paradigm shift.

• But the population also began to demand rights from the state– bottom-up.

• Citizenship becomes an important political identity as nation-states are formed.

Ethnicity and nationalism as sources of conflict

• Why national and ethnic conflict?

  • Ethnic conflict: struggle between groups to achieve economic/political goals at other groups’ expense (superiority).

  • National conflict: struggle between groups for political independence (sovereignty).

  • Violence a common tool.

• What is the starting point of ethnic/national conflict?

  • Top-down: Elite led, way to consolidate power.

  • Bottom-up: Mass led, stemming from long-standing friction.

  • “Artificial states” can lead to bottom-up conflict.

  • Each suggests a different response to restore peace.

• How to resolve conflict?

  • Integrating groups– assimilation (US)

  • Separating groups– social/institutional pillars (Dutch)

  • Regionalism– greater decentralization of power to give different groups more autonomy (Belgium)

  • Devolution– specified (regional) identity (Italy, Spain, UK)

Political attitudes and ideologies

• Ethnic and national identities as group identities

• Political attitudes and ideologies as individual identities

• Both deal with issues of freedom and equality

Political attitudes

• Views regarding the necessary pace and scope of political change:

  • Radicals: seek revolutionary change, violently if necessary.

  • Liberals: seek evolutionary change.

  • Conservatives: seek little or no change of system.

  • Reactionaries: seek to restore previous order, violently if necessary.

• Remember that context matters

  • A radical China versus a radical in the USA?

  • A conservative in Poland post 1990?

Political ideologies

• Views regarding the ideas and motives of political change

• Liberalism:

  • Individual political and economic freedom.

  • Weak state with low autonomy– controlled by people

  • Higher inequality

  • Liberal democracy

    • Liberalism is not the same as ‘liberal’ political attitude

    • Different meanings of “liberal” in North America and elsewhere

• Communism:

  • Low individual political freedom

  • Belief that struggle over resources breeds inequality

  • High equality as the goal

  • Strong state with high autonomy (antithesis of liberalism)

• Social democracy:

  • Seeks to balance individual freedom and collective equality

  • Doesn’t mean socialism

  • Middle–point between communism and liberalism

  • Role for relatively strong state to manage this

  • More common in Europe– “welfare state” (Sweden)

• Fascism:

  • Low individual political freedom

  • But also inequality– based on superiority of some over many

  • High autonomy and capacity to direct nation and vanquish enemies

  • About building a strong state

• Anarchism:

  • High focus on individual freedom

  • Also emphasis on equality

  • Belief that states are the problem, not the solution

  • Seek stateless society to ensure both freedom and equality

  • Requires a deep belief in people’s inherent goodness

• Fundamentalism:

  • Ideologies emerged as rivals to traditional religions

  • But of late ideologies have waned power, lost appeal

  • Reemergence of faith in political context– on its own and in conjunction with ideologies

  • Fundamentalism: ideology that seeks to unite religion with the state to make faith the sovereign authority

  • Does not have a single ideology/orientation

  • Often focused on theocracy– rule by faith

  • Emphasis on freedom and equality may be very different depending on what time of fundamentalism

Political culture:

• Some believe explanation for differences between states lies in their political culture

• Culture: basic institutions that help define society

  • Social road map for behavior

• Political culture: basic norms for political activity in a society; what is politically acceptable