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Contemporary Majority Nationalism PDF

244 Pages·2011·0.707 MB·English
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Contemporary Majority Nationalism studies in nationalism and ethnic conflict General Editors: Sid Noel, Richard Vernon Studies in Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict examines the political dimensions of nationality in the contemporary world. The series includes both scholarly monographs and edited volumes that consider the varied sources and political expressions of national identities, the politics of multiple loyalty, the domestic and international effects of competing identities within a single state, and the causes of – and political responses to – conflict between ethnic and religious groups. The books are designed for use by university students, scholars, and interested general readers. The editors welcome inquiries from authors. If you are in the process of completing a manuscript that you think might fit into the series, you are invited to contact them. 1 Nationalism and Minority Identities in Islamic Societies Edited by Maya Shatzmiller 2 From Power Sharing to Democracy Post-conflict Institutions in Ethnically Divided Societies Edited by Sid Noel 3 Bringing Power to Justice? The Prospects of the International Criminal Court Edited by Joanna Harrington, Michael Milde, Richard Vernon 4 National Identity and the Varieties of Capitalism The Experience of Denmark Edited by John L. Campbell, John A. Hall, Ove K. Pedersen 5 Parallel Paths The Development of Nationalism in Ireland and Quebec Garth Stevenson 6 Reconciliation(s) Transitional Justice in Postconflict Societies Edited by Joanna R. Quinn 7 Contemporary Majority Nationalism Edited by Alain-G. Gagnon, André Lecours, and Geneviève Nootens Contemporary Majority Nationalism Edited by Alain-G. Gagnon, André Lecours, and Geneviève Nootens McGill-Queen’s University Press Montreal & Kingston London Ithaca • • © McGill-Queen’s University Press 2011 isbn 978-0-7735-3825-2 (cloth) isbn 978-0-7735-3826-9 (paper) Legal deposit second quarter 2011 Bibliothèque nationale du Québec Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free (100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Université du Québec à Montréal. McGill-Queen’s University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Contemporary majority nationalism / edited by Alain-G. Gagnon, André Lecours, and Geneviève Nootens. (Studies in nationalism and ethnic conflict) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7735-3825-2 (bound). – ISBN 978-0-7735-3826-9 (pbk.) 1. Nationalism. 2. Ethnicity. I. Gagnon, Alain-G. (Alain-Gustave), 1954– II. Lecours, André, 1972– III. Nootens, Geneviève, 1967– IV. Series: Studies in nationalism and ethnic conflict HM753.C67 2011 302.4 C2010-907744-X This book was typeset by Interscript in 10.5/13 Sabon. Contents Preliminary Notes vii Alain-G. Gagnon 1 Understanding Majority Nationalism 3 André Lecours and Geneviève Nootens Part one Theoretical Considerations 2 The Paradoxes of Contemporary Nationalism 21 Alain Dieckhoff 3 Imagined Nations: Personal Identity, National Identity, and the Places of Memory 43 Àngel Castiñera 4 Cultural Diversity and Modernity: The Conditions of the Vivre Ensemble 80 Louis Dupont 5 National Majorities in New States: Managing the Challenge of Diversity 101 John Coakley Part two Case Studies 6 British and French Nationalisms Facing the Challenges of European Integration and Globalization 127 John Loughlin vi Contents 7 Janus Faces, Rocks, and Hard Places: Majority Nationalism in Canada 144 James Bickerton 8 The Reality of American Multiculturalism: American Nationalism at Work 181 Liah Greenfeld 9 Autonomy and Multinationality in Spain: Twenty-Five Years of Constitutional Experience 197 Enric Fossas References 211 Contributors 231 Preliminary Notes Since the eighteenth century nationalism has been approached in many different ways. A liberating phenomenon when the first nation- states emerged and in the springtime of peoples, nationalism subse- quently came to be seen as both progressive and reactionary and as both conservative and liberal. Clearly, nationalism’s borders have not always been well defined. Is it a social movement, a historical con- struction, a class struggle, a decolonization phenomenon, or a polit- ical ideology? The meanings we give to nationalism and its forms of expression have varied depending on the period and the context. In liberal democracies today it is useful to study nationalism from the angle of power relations among communities and their relationship to the state. Thus, we can speak of majority nationalism in Canada, Spain, and France, and minority nationalism in Catalonia, Scotland, and Québec. The protagonists of majority nationalism most often drape themselves in patriotic discourse to protect existing nation- states and to oppose all other expressions of nationalism. Defenders of minority nationalism challenge the very existence of established states in so far as the latter do not recognize them as full cultural and sociological nations. Each side feeds off the other, while at the same time trying to base its nation-building process on universal founda- tions inspired by the humanist values inherited from the Enlightenment. For more than a decade and a half, the members of the Groupe de recherche sur les sociétés plurinationales (GRSP) have been trying to gain a better understanding of the conditions underlying the relations among nations within contemporary Western states. GRSP members have produced a number of academic works in keeping with a multi- disciplinary approach inspired by law, philosophy, and political science. First, there have been theoretical explorations of the advent of the viii Preliminary Notes multination, which has been intended to meet the needs of national communities living within nation-states, communities that have been profoundly different from one another on the societal level. Publications in this vein include Multinational Democracies (Gagnon and Tully 2001) and The Conditions of Diversity in Multinational Democracies (Gagnon, Guibernau, and Rocher 2003). Major work has also been done on identity construction by national communities. Publications along these lines include Quebec Identity: The Challenge of Pluralism (Maclure 2003) and Repères en mutation: Identité et citoyenneté dans le Québec contemporain (Maclure and Gagnon 2001). In addition to these studies, there have been in-depth analyses of the whys and wherefores of transformations of democracy in states where there is deep diversity. Two of the many publications on this topic are Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in an Age of Diversity (Tully 1995) and Désenclaver la démocratie: Des huguenots à la paix des Braves (Nootens 2004). While their approach has its roots in pol- itical philosophy, these works have benefited greatly from the contri- butions of legal theorists, who have explored the origins of central political authorities’ attempts to standardize norms, as can be seen in Appartenances, institutions, et citoyenneté (Noreau and Woehrling 2005). Moreover, team members have often compared the cases of Catalonia, Scotland, and Québec so as to gain a better understanding of the issues concerning political representation, federal citizenship, and deep diversity. Some of the books published by researchers who have been participating in the GRSP since 1994 include Pour la liberté d’une société distincte (Laforest 2004),1 Basque Nationalism (Lecours 2007), and The Case for Multinational Federalism (Gagnon 2010). The present project is in continuity with those just mentioned, although it also differs in that its purpose is to deepen our understanding of the links between majority nationalism and minority n ationalism. The analyses gathered here shed completely new light on the foundations of majority nationalism by simultaneously exploring identity issues, places of memory, and power relations in states where there is deep diversity. Contributors include theorists from the United States, Britain, Canada, France, and Spain who have dedicated much of their academic work to the study of majority nationalism in their own countries and to the re- sulting experiences with it. The analyses by James Bickerton, Àngel Castiñeira, Alain Dieckhoff, Louis Dupont, Enric Fossas, Liah Greenfeld, and John Loughlin, and by my colleagues André Lecours and Geneviève Nootens are both penetrating and unindulgent towards established Preliminary Notes ix powers. I would like to express my great gratitude to all the authors for agreeing to present their work to the public and for revising their contri- butions in accordance with the comments expressed during forums and by anonymous assessors of this project. The academic contribution of our GRSP colleagues to the present in- itiative should be given special notice because they commented on the texts and verified the translations for the French and English editions. Many thanks to André Lecours and François Rocher (University of Ottawa), Guy Laforest and Jocelyn Maclure (Laval University), Pierre Noreau and José Woehrling (Université de Montréal), Geneviève Nootens (Université du Québec à Chicoutimi), and James Tully (Uni- ver sity of Victoria) for their support in producing this work. Before crossing the border separating policy from politics by joining the Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ) in February 2000, Guy Laforest act- ively participated in the GRSP’s work and explored the ideas underlying communitarian liberalism and liberal nationalism. Fortunately for us, Laforest came back to the research team in full spirit in 2009. Since the mid-1990s, the GRSP’s work has received financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Fonds québécois de recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC, formerly the Fonds de chercheurs et aide à la recherche). Our thanks go to these two funding agencies and, for the present publica- tion, to the Canada Research Chair in Québec and Canadian Studies (CREQC), which helped to organize the series of public conferences that preceded the writing of this book. We would also like to use this opportunity to thank the Québec Delegations in Paris and London, the Spanish Consulate in Canada, and the International Association of Québec Studies (AIEQ) for their financial support for public events. Furthermore, we also express our thanks to Olivier De Champlain and Arjun Tremblay for all their hard work in preparing this edition and to Mary Baker for her long-term complicity in assisting the CREQC in its various projects. Our thanks go as well to Ron Curtis for copy-editing and to Susanne McAdam for seeing the work through production. Finally, we would like to thank Philip Cercone, as well as Sid Noel and Richard Vernon, the editors of this series specializing in Nationalism and Ethic Conflict, for their belief in this project. Alain-G. Gagnon Director, Groupe de recherche sur les sociétés plurinationales

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