A National Identity Republicanism?
| DOI | 10.1177/1474885106067279 |
| Date | 01 October 2006 |
| Author | Laura Andronache |
| Published date | 01 October 2006 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
A National Identity Republicanism?
Laura Andronache
Central European University, Budapest
abstract: This article attempts to bring into discussion concepts from
contemporary theories of republicanism from the vantage point of the particular
theory of republican citizenship advocated by David Miller, and based on national
identity. It emerges from the discussion of his notions of national identity and
republican citizenship that he works with two parallel notions of political obligation:
one that can be intimated from Miller’s Rousseauian vision of a political community
as a community of common will, and another that can be derived from his discussion
of republican citizenship as a practice of deliberation. After identifying these two
notions of political obligation as ancestral obligation and political obligation as public
practice I proceed to show that they work independently of one another, and that the
latter is to be preferred to the former. I conclude by suggesting that these findings
entitle us to think that national identity is neither a necessary nor a desirable
foundation for republican citizenship.
key words: civic virtue, David Miller, national identity, political obligation, public
responsibility, republican citizenship
Republican political theories have generously cropped up in recent years. Because
of the multiplicity of voices involved in this debate and the different inspiration
they draw from the rich history of ideas surrounding republican concepts, and also
because of the feeling one gets that some of these theories verge on the nostalgic
and lack conceptual clarity, the student of political theory may find the resulting
tune disconcertingly Babel Tower-like. Before even appending the usual critical
comments that contemporary republicanism is not fit for large pluralistic societies
or that it goes on and on about nostalgic republican values and mires itself in
anthropological and societal wishful-thinking, the genuinely difficult task is to
assess or develop the conceptual backbone of a republican theory.
In this article, I propose to assess the prospects of one particular republican
theory based on the concept of national identity as developed by David Miller,
and which takes its inspiration (though not in a self-conscious manner) from a
Rousseauian brand of republicanism. I suggest that this particular strategy in pro-
399
article
Contact address: Laura Andronache, Central European University, Nador u. 9, 1051
Budapest, Hungary.
Email: pphanl01@phd.ceu.hu
EJPT
European Journal
of Political Theory
© SAGE Publications Ltd,
London, Thousand Oaks
and New Delhi
issn 1474-8851, 5(4)399–414
[DOI: 10.1177/1474885106067279]
moting civic virtue, and the associated notion of political obligation that one can
derive from it, is neither necessary for republicans to adopt, nor desirable. In other
words, I argue that the claim that some theorists make that a republican concept
of citizenship can only be based on a pre-existing national identity is unpersuasive.
I point out that there is an alternative republican notion of political obligation at
work, which does not make use of national identity, and which is intimated even
in the works of nationalist authors like David Miller. I briefly analyse this repub-
lican notion of political obligation and suggest that it is desirable for republican
authors to go in the argumentative direction that it opens.
I think that this notion, though not fully developed or defended here, shows
that it is thus possible to conceptualize republican values without having to resort
to national identity. The argument behind it is that national identity is not neces-
sary as a source of trust or motivation for citizens to participate in and deliberate
on public matters. A notion of republican citizenship seen as a good in itself and
as a valuable, day-to-day practice can generate both the motivation and, gradually,
the trust that are necessary for dialogue and deliberation. This practice of social
and political relations expressed in the rights and duties of citizenship is of course
set in a general, cultural context, but the identification with this cultural or
national context is not, however, the reasonfor citizens’ involvement in public life.
According to the republican notion of political obligation, people are motivated
to take part in public life by their interest in the general issues and happenings of
their political community, rather than by pre-political identities, because they
recognize that republican citizenship is a good in itself, and because they share
a set of common laws and institutions and, in general, things pertaining to the
political community, without them being of a substantive or ethical nature.
Republican Citizenship and National Identity
The analysis in this section shows that there is a serious tension in David Miller’s
arguments between a notion of republican citizenship that celebrates deliberation
and the author’s insistence on the preservation of national identity. The latter is
plugged into the interpretation of republican values like that of public responsi-
bility, according to which citizens should make their decisions in line with the
principles of public culture of the specific political community. As these principles
appear to be ethically substantive, the openness of deliberation is compromised.
Thus, political participation ends up being presented as a way of expressing one’s
commitment to the community. This goes against the spirit of deliberation that
seems to animate Miller’s theory in that it strips individuals of their role as agents
and turns them into ‘receptacles’ of some general will as expressed in the public
culture of the specific community. Also, Miller exhibits a tendency to argue for
the pre-eminence of national identity, whatever form it may take, while at the
same time appearing to presuppose a liberal-democratic setting. While the dis-
cussion in this section takes various turns together with the author’s sometimes
European Journal of Political Theory 5(4)
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