Nationalism inside out: an ethical review

Xuecun Liang

Economic and Political Studies, 2016, vol. 4, issue 2, 122-136

Abstract: The roles that nationalism has played in modern history are highly controversial. While the growing literature on the subject has offered refined empirical analyses, it leaves major ethical inquiries out of the picture. This paper fills the void by examining the prevalence of nationalism through the lens of a fundamental philosophical divide between communal particularity and human universality. I first discuss the tension between moral/cultural relativism and liberal internationalism to understand the crux of the ‘nationalism problem’; and then I move to consider the bright and dark sides of nationalism with reference to its historical manifestations so as to explore its potentials as a constructive force in future political life. I argue that nationalism is a response to the ambiguous normative underpinnings of the world system. It seeks to come to terms with the fragmentation of politics caused by the diversification of social values. As a living concept, nationalism continues to evolve with new trends of modern life. This research looks beyond the scope of national politics to examine the ‘nationalism problem’. To reify nationalism as a fixed set of extremist doctrines and practices risks undermining the international society’s capabilities to engage nationalistic events wisely and creatively.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20954816.2016.1180765 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:repsxx:v:4:y:2016:i:2:p:122-136

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/reps20

DOI: 10.1080/20954816.2016.1180765

Access Statistics for this article

Economic and Political Studies is currently edited by Qing He and Cunna Li

More articles in Economic and Political Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().