Identity - The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, Sintesi del corso di Lingua Inglese

Scarica Identity - The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! IDENTITY - FUKUYAMA Cap1 In the middle of the 2" decade of the 20 first century, world politics changed and this period was labelled the “3 wave of democratization” due to the increase of the electoral democracy. In correspondence, there was a new growth of economic interdependence among nations > globalization Throughout this period the rate of growth in international trade and investment outpaced (supero) global GPD: so (from 1970 - 2008) the growth extended to virtually all regions of the world, while the number of people living in extreme poverty in developing countries decreased from a 42% of the total ppulatioin in 1993 to 17% in 2011. Consequences of this: INEQUALITY> since growth was related to the increasing volume of good money, and people moving from one place to another and many of these benefits were used by an elite defined by education. CAUSA A DISRUPTIVE SOCIAL CHANGE - villagers who previously had no access to electricity found themselves living in large cities, watching TV, or connected to internet; -labor markets drove tens of millions of people across international borders in search of better opportunities for themselves and their families this brought to the arise of middle classes in developed world. - manufacturing moved from Eu and USA to other low-labor- cost regions (east asia) - women displacing men and low-skilled workers were being replaced by smart machines. But, in the mid-2000s, the liberal world order began to falter (vacillare) due to 2 financial crises: 1. Great recession 2. Greece’ s insolvency because of the euro and the European Union CONSEQUENCES: high levels of unemployment, falling incomes for ordinary workers which damaged the reputation of liberal democracy as a whole. REACTION of this democratic recession Many of authoritarian countries, led by China and Russia, become more self- confident and assertive: China promoted its China model as a path to development and wealth as undemocratic; while Russia attacked the liberal decadence of EU and USA. (while in Turkey, Hungary, Thailand and Poland where liberal democracies in 1990s become more authoritarian government) The Arab Spring of 2011 disrupted dictatorship and disappointed hopes for greater democracy in the region of Libya, Yemen, Iraq and Syria which exploded into a civil war. The terrorist upsurge (ascesa) that caused the 11 th September attacks was not defeated by the U.S invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq but it brought to the arise of the Islamic State. Isis’ s resilience was that many young Muslims left their safe lives in the Middle East to travel to Syria to fight on its behalf. IMPO> the big electoral surprises of 2016: - Britain's vote to leave the EU - the election od Donald Trump as president of the USA. Voters were concerned with economic issues (especially working class exposed to job loss and deindustrialization) and they were fed up with the large-scale immigration, which was seen as taking jobs from native- born workers and eroding long-established cultural identities. Across the continent there were both fears of islamist terrorism and controversies as some expression of Muslim identity were banned suche as the burka, niqab and burkini. Twentieth- century politic organization: - progressive politics centred around workers, their trade unions, and social democratic parties that sought better social protections and economic redistributions; - the right was interested in reducing the size of government and promoting the private sector. But in the 2" decade, that left-right spectrum appears to be collapsed because of identity.--> cause: the left focused less on broad economic equality and more on promoting the interests of marginalized: black, immigrants, women, Hispanics, the LGBT community, refugees and the like. The right are more patriots and they seek to protect traditional national identity (connected to race, ethnicity or religion). The motives of the disparate events of the present is: the politics resentment > which consists in demanding for public recognition of the dignity of the group. A humiliated group seeking restitution od its dignity carries fare more emotional weight than people simply pursuing their economic issue. (example of Russia and the president Orban). But if we think on Osama Bin Laden, his anger at the humiliation of Muslims was later echoed by his young coreligionists volunteering to fight in Syria on behalf of a faith they believed had been attacked. > in order to re-create their glories of an earlier Islamic civilization. Resentment and indignity was a powerful force in democratic countries: Black lives matter movement sprang (nasce) from a series of well- publicized police killings of African- American in Ferguson (Missouri), Baltimore, NY .. or on college campuses and in offices, sexual assault and sexual harassment were seen as evidence of men not taking women seriously as equals. Or transgender people were not considered as a distinct target of discrimination. referring to those who voted Donald Trump hoped through their action to “make America great again” IDENTITY POLITICS> based on nation, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation This concept have been popularized by the psychologist Erik Erikson. Identity has a wide number of meanings in some cases referring to social categories or roles, in others to basic information about oneself> impo to understand contemporary politics. Identity grows out of distinction between one's true inner self and an outer world of social rules and norms that does not recognize that inner self's worth or dignity. Only in modern times has the view taken hold that the authentic inner self is intrinsically valuable and the outer society wrong and unfair in its valuation of the former. > it is not the inner self that has to be made to conform to society’s rules but society itself needs to change. There are different meaning of dignity, but the inner sense of dignity seeks recognition. Self- esteem arises out of esteem of the others. + human being wanted to be recognised, and the modern sense evolves into identity politics, in which individuals demand for public recognition of their worth. NB: identity politics brought about struggles of the contemporary world, from democratic revolutions to the new social movements (from nationalism to Islamism). The philosopher Hegel was in opposition to the fact that the struggle for recognition was the ultimate driver of human history. # economic inequalities arising from globalization are the major factor explaining contemporary politics, economic problems that become more acute when they are linked to feelings of indignity. According to modern economic theory: human being are rational individuals who want to maximize their “utility” as their material well-being and that politics is simply an extension of that maximizing behaviour. BUT ATTENTION, there is a more complex psychology beyond this simpleminded economic model: that is understanding the theory of human soul. Cap 2 Modern economics are based on one such theory, which is that human being are “rational utility maximizes”> use their cognitive abilities to benefit their self- interest. ASSUMPTIONS: -Cooperation> people cooperate with one another, because it is calculated that the cooperation will serve their individual self- interest better than if they act on their own; - nature of utility® the individual preferences for a car, for sexual gratification, for a pleasant vacation (the utility function) Assertion of Rousseau society exists outside the individual, a mass of rules, relationships, injuctions and customs represented the obstacle to the realization of human potential and hence of human happiness. NB+> Rousseau did not believe that the desire for recognition was natural to human beings > he argued that the emotion of pride to compare oneself to others did not exist among early human beings and that their emergence in human history caused human unhappiness. > so for R, the recovery of the inner self tends to divest (spogliare) oneself of the need for social recognition; the solitary dreamer does not need anyone's approval. Rousseau was correct in the transition from hunter-gatherer to agrarian (unequal and hierarchical) and then to commercial societies. But he was wrong about the pride emerged at a certain stage of social evolution, so if it were socially constructed, young children would have to be somehow trained to experience it but yet, we do not observe this happening. This could be explain by the levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain. IMPO> the distinction between an inner and outer self, emerged in EU when a series of profound economic and social changes created material conditions by which such ideas could spread. All human societies told members to live under common rules, human cooperation and hence human success as a species. Even if society had rebellious teenagers and misfits, it wins outby forcing inner selves to conform to external norms. For ten thousand years people lived in settled agrarian communities: one's entire Ilife is lives in the same small village with a limited circle of friends, one's religion and beliefs are shared by all; and social mobility is impossible. This lack of choice did not make sense for ask himself Who am really as all of the characteristics making up the inner self are fixed. > conseque: no concept of society outside the individual, limiting his choices and no valorization of an inner self over that society. Thus, this began to change with a commercial revolution and upending established social hierarchies. > Adam Smith argued that as markets grew through technologies, new occupation appeared and new social classes emerged. SO THIS MEAMS THAT INDividuals had more choices and opportunities in their lives (# in the old society their limited choices defined who they were on the inside) and new ideas shaped the material of the world creating new conditions for the spread of them. Cap 4 Modern concept of identity is composed by 3 phenomena: -thymos: universal aspect of human personality that desires recognition - inner and outer self: the raising of the moral valuation of the inner over outer society - concept of dignity in which recognition is due to everyone. According to Socrates, dignity was demanded by political community ‘s warriors who were willing to risk death in public service. But another example is that of Adam and Eve eating the fruit, ashamed of their nakedness. The point is that human beings are able to distinguish between good and evil. By eating the fruit, they established their moral status and that of their descendants even though they made the wrong choice, they know the difference between good and evil. # animals are incapable of it since they operate on instinct. So the human capacity for choice gives people a higher status than that of the animals since they shares God's capacity for goodness. According to Immanuel Kant, the moral choice consists of the ability to follow abstract rules of reason for their own sake. This implies that human beings are not machines subject to the law of physics (like Hobbes said) but they are moral agents who are able to choose independently of their material environment and they have to be treated as ends in themselves. Morality as> act of choice itself The philosopher Hegel put recognition of the moral agency at the center of his account in which human history are driven by a struggle for recognition. The demands comes from a warrior who risks his life for a recognition of itself. But this recognition fails to be satisfying because it isthe same of a slave who is without dignity. The solution is the acquisition of the slave through the labor, and the ability to transform the world into a place suitable for human life. 3 the only rational form of recognition is the mutual recognition of master and slave of their shared humanity dignity. A liberal democratic regime based on individual rights embodied the notion of equal dignity in law by recognizing citizen as moral agents capable of sharing in their own self- government. Hegel points to a fundamental truth about modern politics: the great passions such as of the French Revolution were at the base struggles over dignity. &the freedom of the inner self has to be embodied in rights and law. (as the democratic upsurge after the French Rev was driven by peoples demanding recognition of their political personhood capable of sharing in political power). Cap 5 On December 17, 2010, police confiscated the produce from the vegetable cart of a Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi who was slapped by a policewvoman Faida Hamdi. The fact that she was female may have increased his feeling of humiliation in a male- dominated culture. Bouazizi went to the governor's office to get his scales back, but he refused to see him. So B doused himself in gasoline and set himself on fire shouting “ how do you expect to make a living” > news spread throughout the Arab world, triggering what had become ad the Arab Spring. This led to massive protests which broke out/ uprising took place in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria. What was shared among all these protesters was RESENTMENT as they were disregarded by their governments. In subsequent years, Arab Spring brought to many consequences : - In Syria, the country's dictator, Bashar al- Assad lauched a war against his own population in which have been killed more than 400000 people: - in Egypt Muslim Brotherhood caused fears that had made the military to stage a coup in 2013; (golpe) - in Libya and Yemen, dictators tightened their grip (controllo) > RESULT: Arab spring had nothing to do with democracy. Boazizi' s self- immolation, brought masses of people risk their own lives, but why? He was not a protyester or a political prisoner mistreated by the regime but and ordinary citizen. His experience was familiar to millions of people in the Arab world and what make them angry is that the state was not treating him like a human being: a moral agent worthy of respect-> he deserved an explanation or justification for why hid livelihood had been confiscated. > he crystalized the sense of justice they felt toward the regimes they were living under > as they didn't agree on what type of regime would replace the old dictatorships. Over the past 2 generations, the world has seen a large number of spontaneous uprisings suche as: the Revolution of the Dignity in Ukraine where Yanukovych'effort to take Ukraine back into the Russian orbit triggered a series of spontaneous protests. The choice between aligning with Putin's Russia or with EU was seen as a choice between living under a modern government that treated people equally and living under a regime in which democracy was manipulated. So the Eromaidan uprising was about protecting the basic dignity of ordinary citizens. Liberal democracy are based on freedom and equality even if the concept of freedom can be interpreted in a negative sense (from government power). But this freedom is institutionalized in the rights to free speech and assembly and express yourself. Many modern democratic constitutions take the principle of equal dignity from the Christian tradition according to dignity is rooted in human moral agency. But in political sense, this means the ability to share in the exercise of power as a member of a democratic political community. 3 today it means an equality of freedom which implies both an equal negative freedom from abusive government power and an equal positive freedom to participate in self- government and economic exchange. Then the law protects both the negative freedom from government abuse and the positive freedom of equal participation. (the rule of law limits power by granting citizens basic rights: associations, property, speech). Even if real- world liberal democracies never respected rights which are often violated, the law never applies equally to the rich and powerful as it does to the poor and weak. + successful democracy depends not on optimization of its ideals but balance between individual freedom and political equality, between a capable state exercising legitimate power and the institution of law; they try to promote economic growth, a clean environment, consumer safety, support for science, technology through policies. But the effective recognition of citizen as equal adults that make political choices is a minimal condition for being a liberal democracy. # authoritarian governments fail to recognize the equal dignity > the state adopted a paternalistic attitude toward citizens so that they were regarded as children who needed protection from a wise parent (the state). NB> a state that guarantees equal political rights is the only rational way to resolve the contradictions that Hegel saw in the relationship between master and slave, where only the master was recognized. > THIS IS WHY AMERICANS PROTEST, SOUTH AFRICA STAND UP AGAINST APARTHEID, AND BOUAZIZI?S SELF IMMOLATION. CAP 6 The French Revolution unleash: - the demand for recognition of the dignity of individuals - the dignity of collectives. 1. Individualistic stream: all human beings were born free and were equal in their desire for freedom for freedom and political institution were created to preserve that natural freedom as possible > as liberal democracies put equal protection of individual autonomy at the core of their moral projects. But what does it means? 3the idea that dignity is rooted in human moral choice has received also a political recognition by becoming included in modern democratic constitutions such as those of Germany, Italy, Ireland ets. But none of these constitutions defines what human dignity is. Only looking at the lexical origins of the words used and its historical path, we could understand it. In Kant the origin of the concept dignity is evident in both: the German and the South Africa cases. The German law's use of the word inviolable-> call back to the categorical imperative as does the SA reference to the intrinsic worth. But there is no mention to Christianity explicitly or seeks to link political rights to religious belief. The Anglo- American liberal tradition (began with Locke and Hobbes) does not build autonomy around free will; but freedom is the ability to pursue one's desires and passions free of external constraints. Hobbesian notion that human beings are fundamentally equal becomes the basis for the political rights on which the social contract is based. Then this natural right to life was included In the American Declaration of Independence as part of the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. > thus, the liberal political tradition institutionalised one version of the individual autonomy: by granting equal rights to citizens (this is a slightly different premise that leads to a similar regime to protect individual rights) For Rousseau, who followed Luther, the inner self is good or at least has the potential for being good; but it is the surrounding moral rules that are bad > for him, freedom is not just the moral choice to accept moral rules but it is a full expression of the feeling and emotions (which is the real inner self). In the late 19°" Nietzsche granted that since God died, he left a moral void that could be filled with alternative values> this expanded the scope for human autonomy: human beings were free to create the moral law for themselves. Indeed, for him the highest form of artistic expression was the value creation this is the islamicization of radicalism a process from the same alienation that drove the earlier generations of extremists. So the motives behind jihadist terrorism are more personal and psychological than religious reflecting the problem of identity. Radical Islam offer them a community, acceptance and dignity. But many terrorists come from middle-class backgrounds, and many were apolitical and unconcerned with global politics. They simply realised that an inner, unrecognized self that the outside world was trying to suppress. Even though Roy has been criticized for his interpretation of contemporary jihadism as an identity problem or it is at base a genuinely religious phenomenon? Roy is correct when he say that the huge majority of the world's Muslims are not radicals and extremism must be rooted in individual stories and social settings. -Both nationalism and Islamism can be seen as a species of identity politics: they both appeared on the world stage at moments of social transition from traditional isolated agrarian societies to modern ones connected to a broader world. - both provide an ideology that explains why people feel lonely and confused and suffering unhappiness on groups of outsiders. - both demand recognition of dignity for members of a particular national or religious group. CAP 8- the wrong address In the 20 st cent, nationalist and religious parties and politicians were shaping one striking characteristics of global politics. Nationalist > claims democratic legitimacy via elections emplacing on national sovereignty in the interest of the people. (think about Putin, Erdogan, Orban, and Trump) Religion> with uprisings as the Arab Spring derailed by Islamist groups (ex. Muslim Brotherhood) and more radical organizations. While the old-class-based left has been in decline: communism collapsed in 1989, but not in North Korea and Cuba. There were always Communist and other leftist group in the Middle East during the Cold war. And it was strong in Latin America with the rise of Hugo Chavez in Venezuel, da Silva in Brazil and the Kirchners in Argentina. The global weakness of the left given the rise of global inequality over the past 3 decades, > it caused a growth in individual countries and a gap between rich and poor. The economist Milanovic has devised a widely cited “elephant graph” > which show in per capita income fo different segments of the global income distribution. RESULT: world grew in productivity but population experienced either stagnation or else marginal gains. --this affected working class in developed countries who remain much better off those below them but they have lost significant ground to people. The inequality was intensified by the financial crisis of 2008 in which the machinations and policy choices created an asset bubble bursting which destroyed jobs and savings for millions of ordinary Americans. Expecting to see a huge revival of populist left, since the French rev willing to use the state power to redistribute wealth from rich to poor. It was curious that a rise of right-wing populist nationalist forces developed. Such as in countries as Britain and USA. In 2016 voters failed to endorse the left-wing populists, choosing nationalists instead. This is explained by the loss among those poor working-class constituencies that should have been their most solid base of support. And then, Marxism has befuddled (confuso) for years similarly in the Middle East in which was explained how economic motivations are intertwined with identity issues in human behaviour. CAP 9 - invisible man The agenda of modern feminism has been set not by working- class women hoping to get job by educated professional women seeking to rise closer to the top of the social hierarchy. MOTIVES for equal pay is about justice: salary is a marker if dignity and the firm is telling her that she is worth less than a man even though her qualifications and contributions are equal or even superior. >is a matter of recognition: if they told that she would never hold a coveted (desiderato) title simply because she is woman, it made feel her aggrieved even though she was given the same pay. This link between economic interest and recognition is explained by Adam Smith who observed that the poor has basic necessities and do not suffer from gross material deprivation. While rich man glories in his riches and seek a status relative to make other billionaires, the poor man is ashamed of his poverty and they scarce any fellow-feeling with the misery which suffers. So un USA, the pain of poverty is felt as a loss of dignity . In Ellison's classic novel “Invisible man” about a black man moving from the American South to Harlem>the indignity of racism was that African-Americans were invisible to their white peers. (pari) Connection of income to dignity> having a job conveys recognition by the rest of society that one is doing something socially valuable.---.omeone who is paid for doing nothing has no basis for pride. The desire of status megalothymia is rooted in human biology. The one who achieve dominance or alpha male status, have higher levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin which is associated with feelings of well-being and elation in human beings. (for this reason Prozac and Zolof are widely used in treating depression) This question of status in middle class 3 they feel that their economic status entitles them to respect because they are educated, they work hard, they raise families and carry out responsibilities to society such as paying taxis and they constitute the core of national identity. The great drivers of the new American nationalism into the White House has been the perception of invisibility> the rusal voters who supported Republican governor Walker explained that the elites in the capital pay no attention to their problems. Or a Tea Party voter in rural Louisiana + the resentful citizens fearing loss of middle-class status point an accusatory finger upward to th elityes. > HOSCHSCHILD + impo for his metaphor of ordinary people patiently waiting on a long line to get through a door labelled THE AMERICAN DREAM, and seeing other people cut in line ahead of them (Africans, immigrants, women) aided by those elites who ignore them. -->you are a stranger in your own land: you do not recognize yourself in how others see you. To feel honored, you have to feel seen as. Economic distress is often perceives as a loss of identity > hard work should confer dignity on an individual but that dignity is condemned this explain why nationalists and religious conservative groups have been more appealing to many people that left-wing ones. According to nationalists the loss of relative economic position is a loss of identity and status so that foreigners, immigrants, and your own elite compatriots have been conspiring to hold you down; your country is no longer your own and you are not respected. For this reason, immigration is a neuralgic issue in many countries: it may or may not be helpful to a national economy (trade but it does not benefit all groups in society) So it is seen as a threat to cultural identity > especially when cross-border flows of people as massive as they have been in recent decades. But why nationalists captured voters of the left, both in EU and USA? Another factor to the economic dislocations is caused by technological changes and globalization with its broader social safety net. And because progressives appealed to communal identity, sharing experience of exploitation and resentment of rich capitalists> workers of the world,unite! NB> the problem with the contemporary left is the particular forms of identity focused on smaller groups being marginalized 3this is part of a larger story about the fate of liberalism in which the principle of universal and equal recognition has become the special recogn of a particular groups. CAP 10- Democratization of dignity In modern liberal democracies in North America and Eu, dignity has been democratized as political systems granting rights to wider and wider circles of individuals. In the ratification of the U.S Constitution in 1778, inly white males with property had full political rights but then the circle of rights bearers (portatori) included white man without property, African-Americans, indigenous people, and women.-->become more democratic evolving in a collective direction, such that the t strands (liberal individualism in political rights and collective identities) ended up converging. RICORDA RIASSUNTO: -thymos and the desire for recognition of dignity in Plato0s Republic in which recognition was deserved by guardian or warrior class because of their willingness to risk their lives on a violent struggle to defend the larger community; - dignity universalized in the Christian tradition as all human beings were capable of moral choice # in protestant was founded in deep inside each individual - the concept of universal dignity as a form of rational moral rules by Kant - Rousseau inner moral self filled with plenitude of feelings and personal experience suppressed by the surrounding society> access to those feelings become a moral imperative. For him, each of has an inner self buried deep within; that is unique and a source of creativity and has an equal value to that of the others> the self is expressed through feelings and it is at the basis of the human dignity (as it is recognized in political documents such as the declaration of indipendence) Dignity-> in liberal society came to be a political order encouraged the full actualization of the inner self (not only a protection of minimal individual rights) With the erosion of the shared moral horizon of the common religion, it was less possible to award dignity only to those individuals who complied with ChristianityOs moral rules.--> but recognition was due to the expressive inner self that might even want to transgress religious rules. In 20° cent, the California task force was based on the idea of the psychologist Maslow, famous for his “hierarchy needs”> at the bottom were physiological needs like food and drink; in the middle were social needs like safety and security; and at the top the self- actualization. > he argued that most people did not realize their potential and in modern concept of identity was consistent the idea that individual’s self - actualization was a higher need than the requirements of the broader society. CONTRADICTION of California task force between isothymia and megalothymia The inner self tends to be nonjudgmental, warning that we should not compare ourselves to others or allows ourselves to be judged by others. But the authors reports that the inner selves may be cruel, violent, narcissistic, dishonest or even lazy. But having affirmed the need for universal self-esteem, the report states experience raised the profile of subjectivity, as such in the other groups based on race, ethnicity gender orientation, disability and the like. within of each group lived experiences were different: those of gays and lesbians from those of transgender people; a black man in Baltimore from a black woman in Birmingham. Modernizations entails this emergence of a complex society creating a diverse pluralism of individuals who are living next to another 3these social changes due to modern communications technology and social media allow like-minded individuals in geographically separate place to communicate with one another. >here lived experience begin to proliferate exponentially just like YT stars or FB circles on the internet. But multiculturalism became the label for a political program that sought to value each separate culture and lived experience equally, in particular thosethat had been invisible in the past. Multiculturalism was originally used to large cultural groups which were fragmented further into smaller and more specific groups with distinct experiences (or those who suffered discrimination). FACTOR THE SHIFT of focus to identity: - the increasing of crafting policies that would bring about large-scale socioeconomic change. Marxism left hoped to increase socioeconomic equality though the use of state power, both to open access to social services to citizens and to redistribute wealth. But the social democratic left reached a dead end when the ever- expanding welfare state bumped into the reality of fiscal constraints during the 1970s. in response to that, the government printed money, lead to inflation and financial crisis.--> cause: discouragement in work, savings, entrepreneurship. Marxism left largely collapsed and social democrats back to the capitalism. The increasing disillusionment with the govemment itself after failures such the Vietnam war. While left continued to be defined by its passion for equality, the agenda shifted to the psychological demand of an ever-widening circle of marginalised group which led to the hegemony of Western culture and values that suppressed minorities at home and developing countries abroad. Europeans became more multicultural when immigrant communities (Muslim) grew in many EY countries in response to the early post- WWII. But many people on the European left regarded Islamists as marginalised that westernized Muslims who had chosen to integrate into the social system. For instance, in France Muslims became the new proletariat in the name of cultural pluralism > identity politics aims at changing culture and behaviour in ways that will have a benefits for the people involved. However, police abuse still continue in uSA (referring to black lives matter) or the #metoo movement has opened an important discussion of the inadequacies of criminal law. The most visible manifestations of identity politics gave appeared on university campuses: university curricula ca be altered to include readings of women and minority authors than incomes or social situations of the group in question. The 2" prob of newer and narrowly defined marginalised group is ignoring serious problems of older and larger groups. Ex: progressives have no strategies for dealing with the immense job losses due to automation, or the income disparities that technology may bring to all Americans, white, black, male or female. 3'° prob: the need for deliberative discourse the focus on lived experiences by identity groups valorizes inner selves emotionally. But the very nature of modern identity with its emphasis on lived experiences creates conflicts within liberal coalition + such as controversies over “cultural appropriation” which have set progressive black and whites against one another. The last prob with identity politics as practiced on the left is the arise of identity politics on the right.-> which means political correctness: things you can't say in public without fearing moral opprobrium. In liberal democracies, one is free to believe and say in private that Hitler war right to kill jews. Under the U.S First Amendment saying these sort of things is also protected. The more extreme forms of political correctness are a small numbers of writers, artists, students, intellectuals on the left who are amplified by conservative media > this could explain 2016 U.s presidential election od D. Trump in which campaign mocked a disabled journalist, he characterized Mexicans as rapists, criminals. But many supporters liked the fact that he was not intimidate by the pressure to be politically correct: he may be mendacious, malicious, bigoted but he says what he thinks. The most dangerous of these new right-wing identities are related to race as the president has been careful not to articulate over racist views. Since his rise, white nationalism has become a mainstream in American politics which can talk about black lives matter, gay rights or Latino voters as a groups that can legitimately organize around a specific identity. But if one uses white as self- identification or organize politically the “white rights” one is identified as racist and bigot. Perceptions on the part of conservatives of advantages being unfairly given to minorities, women or refugees are exaggerated, as is the sense of political correctness and by social media. the reality for many marginalised groups continues as before but what is notable if how right has adopted the language and framing of identity: the idea that a particular group is victimized but which is invisible to the rest of society and that the whole of the social and political structure responsible needs to be smashed. So, the shift in agendas of both left and right toward protection of narrower group identities ultimately threatens the possibility of communication and collective action. SOLUTION: define a larger and more integrative national identities that take account of diversity of existing liberal democratic societies. CAP 12- we people Weak national identity has been a major problem in the Greater Middle East, where Yemen, and Libya have turned into failed states and Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia have suffered from internal insurgency.--> this caused an obstacle to the development # japan, Korea, China all had well-developed national identities before they began to modernize. Even if they suffered from civil war, occupation and division. But they could build on traditions of statehood and common national purpose. NATIONAL IDENTITY begins supposedly with a shared belief in the legitimacy of the country's political system but It also extended into the realm of culture and values.--> they shared historical memories, what it takes to become a genuine member of the community. In the contemporary world, diversity on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation is both a fact of life and a value. exposure to different ways of thinking can stimulate innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. EX: the greater area of Washington is an incredible amount of ethnic diversity and has it becomes a place where young people want to live, they bring new music, arts, technologies and entire neighbourhoods that did not exist before. DIVERSITY>is critical to resilience+ the broad concern over the loss of diversity in species around the world rests on its threat to long-term biological resilience Diversity has not to be suppressed but individual want to feel a connection with their ancestors even if they are not part of the culture, they want to hold on tradition practices that recall earlier ways of life. National identity got a bad name in this period because it came to be associated with an exclusive, ethnically based sense of belonging “ethno-nationalism”- > which persecuted people who were not part of the group and committed aggressions against foreigners on behalf of co- ethnics living. In other countries. the problem was narrow, intolerant SOLUTION: national identities can be built around liberal and democratic political values and the common experience which provide the connective tissue around diverse communities. But this inclusive sense of national identity remains critical for the maintenance of modern political order because: - physical security > weak national identity (like in Syria and Libya) creates other serious security issues: a state breakdown and civil war # large political units are more powerful than smaller ones - equality of government + good government is effective public services and low levels of corruption, depends on placing public interest above their own narrow interests. - facilitating economic development + many identity groups based on ethnicity or religion prefer to trade among themselves and use their access to state power to benefit their group alone. While this may be of help to an immigrant community to assimilate into a larger culture. - promoting a wide radius of trust identity groups do that among their members but social capital often remains limited to the narrow in- group.(as trump who cooperate with other people based on informal norms and shared values) # strong identities often decrease trust between in- and out- group members -maintaining strong social safety nets that mitigate economic inequality > if there is an higher levels of trust in one another, they are more likely to support social programs that aid their weaker fellows, by contrast, societies divided are more likely to regard themselves as in a zero-sum competition. - making possible liberal democracy itself> which is based on an implicit contract between citizens and their government and the national identity is built around the legitimacy of this contract = if citizens do not believe they are part of the same polity but the system will not function. citizens often have to accept outcomes they do not like or prefer, in the interest of a common good, a culture of tolerance. REMB THE THYMOS+ which is rooted in thymos which is experienced through feeling of pride, shame, and anger. IN EU, extensive rights have been granted to refugees once they enter Eu and that are enforced by the EU Court of Human Rights, while in USA, in opposition to Mexican and Muslim immigration figured centrally in D. Trump's election campaign. As his promise of a big, beautiful wall on the Mexican border. it is not surprising that immigration has triggered a backlash The common objective of populist politicians in both EU and USa is to “take back our country” even if, the Constitution says clearly that the people are sovereign and that legitimate government flows from their will > without defining who the people are or on what basis individuals are to be included in the national community. 3 these are reflected a broader prob for all liberal democracies Manent said that most democracies were built on top of pre-existing nations, societies well-developed that defined the sovereign people. (Germany, France, Britain and Netherlands are historical by -products of a long and violent political struggles under undemocratic regimes) CONTESTO EU In Eu, in French have a long history of thinking of citizenship in political and territorial terms> through jus sanguins havepermetted the almost/ automatic acquisition of citizenship for 2" and 3'°/ generation immigrants.-->this means French nationality loyalty to the republic, to the language and education By contrast, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, children of immigrant parents who spoke perfect German could obtain citizenship with great difficult. While, ethnic Germans from the former Soviet Union could be naturalised on proof of German ethnicity, even if they spoke no German. Or Japan was one of the most restrictive country of any developed democracy. Individual EU countries began reforming their citizenship laws in the 2000s: new citizens were expected to demonstrate knowledge of the country's history, to understand its political institutions, to speak their national language with a certain proficiency. Ex: The Netherlands is a tolerant country which is built around parallel communities rather than integration on an individualistic level. 3 that it is to say that under pillarization: the Protestant, Catholic and secular communities maintained their own schools, newspapers, and political parties. AIM od the Dutch system maintaining social peace in a divided society but at the same time it constitute an obstacle to assimilating immigrants of a very different culture. CONtex of EASTERN EU states They were less willing to accept culturally different newcomers since the imposition of Communism (due to the soviet occupation) on them which froze their social and political development. # in West Germany and Spain which were not forced to wrestle with their nationalist pasts After 1989, they threw off Communism and rushed into the EU, but many of their citizens did not embrace the positive liberal values embodied in. -EX: Orban could declare that Hungarian national identity was based on Hungarian ethnicity. While Brussels was seen as a threat as it opened the door to unlimited immigration from the Middle East and Africa. These EU identity was not accepted by Britain that possessed a loud Euroskeptic fringe represented by Nigel Farage. And its unexpected vote to leave the EU in June 2016 was predicted to have disastrous economic consequences, but the issue for many Leave voters was one of identity. This choice is understandable in the light of the historical legacy of English. the English Euroskepticism is rooted in a long- standing belief in English exceptionalism. When the country was conquered in 1066 by French dynasty, then the separation from catholic church with Henry VIII, a distinctive sense of English identity began to take root. USA CONTEXT The USA has had a longer experience with immigration and the national identity was the product of political struggles. Since the election of DT who built his campaign around opposition to immigration especially from Mexico and the Muslim world. Trump's supporters assert they want to “take back their country” 3a claim that implies their country has somehow stolen from them. After the rally in Charlottesville, the Republican senator tweeted that these neo-nazi have no understanding of America. According to Jay' definition of America identity is based on shared religion (Protestantism), ethnicity (descent from the English), common language The American civil war was, at its root, a fight over American national identity. Lincoln appealed to the Declaration of Independence which asserted that “all men are created equal””>he understood that the real issue was slavery and the threat it represented to the founding principle of equality. > through the 13! Amendment the slavery was abolished; the 14‘ Amend defined citizenship to include all people born or naturalized in the territory (jus soli); the 15% Amend prohibited the denial of the right based on race, colour and previous condition of servitude. This creedal understanding of American identity emerged as a result of a long struggle stretching over nearly 2 cent. 3 USA is a diverse society, but diversity cannot be the basis for identity in and of itself. ..> it is like saying that our identity is to have no identity and to emphasize our narrow ethnic identies. Many theorist of modern democracy have argued that passive acceptance of a democratic creed is not enough to make such a system work. But successful democracy requires: - citizens who are patriotic, informed, active, public-spirited, and willing to participate in political matters.-- >also open-minded, tolerant of the view points and ready to compromise their own views. Huntington was one of the few contemporary political thinkers who argued that America as a nation depended on certain cultural norms and virtues as well. >”would America be the America it is today if in the 17!" cent it had been settled by Frebch, Spanish catholics?” > he was denounced as a racist and precursor to DT. But, he was saying that the Anglo-Protestants settlers brought with them a culture that was critical for the subsequent development of the country as a successful democracy done of the elements of the culture was the Protestant work ethic. (its historical origins may lie in the Puritanism). He was wrong indeed, to fear that Mexican immigrants would not adopt Anglo-Protestants value and habits justified by the contemporary understandings of multiculturalism and identity politics which were putting up unnecessary barriers to assimilation> so now it need positive virtues and not link identity to race, ethnicity or religion. A creedal identity is necessary but not a sufficient condition for success. CAP 14 - what is to be done Liberal democracy is built around the rights given to individuals who are equal in their freedom and who have an equal degree of choice and agency in determining their collective political lives. BUT many people are not satisfied with simple equal recognition as generic human beings. EX: the rights are highly valued when one lives under a dictatorship , but come to be taken for granted over time once democracy has been established # unlike young people growing up in Eastern Eu can take the liberties they enjoy for granted. So being a citizen of a liberal democracy mean that they are judged on the basis of their skin colour, their gender, their national origin, their looks, their ethnicityd each groups seeks its own dignity CONS identity politics divide society into smaller group by virtue of their “lived experience” of victimization. Confusion over identity arises as a condition of living in the modern world > modernization means constant change and disruption and fluidity which is by millions of people have been fleeing villages and traditional societies that do not offer them choices, in favour of ones that do. negative aspect: this freedom and degree of choice can also leave people unhappy and disconnected from their fellow human beings. They could find themselves nostalgic for the community or lost in their structured life they think to have. CONSEQ: a perception of lowering of the status of the groups leading to a politics of resentment and backlash. The nature of modern identity that is to be changeable brought some individuals to persuade themselves and their identity based on their biology and is outside their control: the condition of modernity is to have multiple identities shaped by our social interactions, defined by race, gender, workplace, education, affinities, and nation. While we will never get away from identity politics in the modern world, we can create identities that are broader and more integrative making democracy more functional. BUT, HOW WE TRANSLATE THESE ABSTARCT IDEAS INTO A CONCRETE POLICY? We need to promote creedal national identities built around the foundational ideas of modern liberal democracy, and use public policies to assimilate newcomers to those identities. The EU AGENDA 1. it must start with ridefinitions of national identity embodied in its citizenship laws > ideally, the EU should create a single citizenship whose requirements would be based on adherence to basic liberal democratic principles and national laws.--> this too is likely to be beyond the capability of a union of 28 members, each of which remains jealous of its national prerogatives. Those laws of EU member state still based on jus sanguinis need to be changed to jus soli dit is perfectly legitimate to impose stringent requirements for the naturalization of new citizens, (like USA) > providing continuous residency in the country for 5 years, new citizens are expected to be able to read, write, and speak basic English, to have an understanding of U.S history and government to demonstrate an attachment to the principles and ideals of the U.S Constitution. Dual Citizenship has becoming widespread today as migration levels have increased. > having multiple passports is a great convenience But even short of such contingencies, dual citizenship raises a serious political problems. Ex. In Germany's 2017 election Turkey's authoritarian president encouraged German citizens of Turkish origins to vote for politicians in favour of Turkish interests. 2. Shifttheir popular understandings of national identity away from those based on ethnicity. 3. Europeanshave created a remarkable civilization of which they should be proud (pan- European identity) one that can encompass people from other cultures even as it remains aware of the distinctiveness of its own. AMERICAN CONTEXT USA developed a creedal identity early on, based on its long history of immigration. They are proud of their naturalised citizens and typically make a great deal out of the naturalization ceremony, with color guards, hopeful speeches by local politicians. (as Americanism is based on a set of beliefs and a way of life, not an ethnicity) This creedal national identity emerged in the wake of the American civil war that needs to be strongly defended from the attacks by both the left and the right. (on the right> they want to take their country back to race, ethnicity, or religion > rejecting as un- American on the left try to undermine the legitimacy of the American national story by focusing on victimization, insinuating racism, gender discrimination, and other forms of systematic exclusion are somehow intrinsic to the country's DNA ) these things have been and continue to be features of American society and the overcoming barriers can be seen as narrative of “the new birth of freedom” envisioned by Lincoln that Americans celebrates on the Thanksgiving.