What does it mean to be patriotic in different cultures?

Patriotism, a sense of attachment and commitment to a country, nation or political community. Patriotism (love of country) and nationalism (loyalty to a nation) are often taken as synonymous, yet patriotism originated nearly 2,000 years before the rise of nationalism in the 19th century.

Greek and especially Roman antiquity provide the roots of a political patriotism that envisions loyalty to the patria as loyalty to the political concept of the republic. It involves the love of law and general liberty, the pursuit of the common good, and the duty to treat one's country justly. This classical Roman meaning of patria resurfaced in the context of 15th-century Italian city-republics. Here, Patria stands for the general liberties of the city, which can only be secured by the civic spirit of the citizens.

 For Niccolò Machiavelli, the love of general liberty enabled citizens to see their private and special interests as part of the common good and helped them resist corruption and tyranny. Although this love for the city is usually conflated with pride in its military might and cultural superiority, it is the city's political institutions and way of life that form the distinct focus of this type of patriotic attachment. To love the city is to be willing to sacrifice one's good - including one's life - to protect the common liberties.

In contrast to classical republican conceptions of patriotism, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's consideration of the Polish government can be seen as an early example of the connection between nationalism and patriotism. While Rousseau advocated the love of nation and the celebration of national culture, he believed that national culture was valuable primarily because it helped foster loyalty to the political fatherland. Thus, Rousseau derived from nationalism and his typically republican emphasis on securing citizens' loyalty to their political institutions.

A clearer link between nationalism and patriotism can be found in the work of the German philosopher Johann Gottfried von Harder. In Harder's view, patriotism does not refer to a political quality but to a spiritual attachment to the nation. In this context, the fatherland becomes synonymous with the nation and its distinctive language and culture, which gives it unity and coherence. Thus, instead of associating patriotism with the preservation of political freedom, Harder associates love of a country with the preservation of a common culture and the spiritual unity of a people.

 While in the classical republican tradition, "fatherland" is synonymous with political institutions, for Harder, nation is pre-political and love for one's national culture is a natural tendency that allows a people to express their individual character. As such, patriotism is associated with an exclusive attachment to one's own culture and thus opposes cosmopolitanism and cultural assimilation. Freedom is equated not with the struggle against political oppression but with the preservation of a unique people and patriotic sacrifice for the long-term survival of the nation.

This connection between patriotism and exclusive attachment to one's nation has led critics to view the sense of patriotic pride as morally dangerous, giving rise to an anarchy that is incompatible with universal aspirations and recognition of the equal moral worth of all people. A more sympathetic approach to patriotism sought to ground it in new forms of loyalty consistent with universal values, respect for human rights, and tolerance of ethnic and national differences.

At the heart of this new interest in patriotism is the belief that stable, democratic societies require a strong sense of loyalty among their citizens. While the high degree of pluralism that characterizes contemporary societies only creates tensions and disagreements among citizens that can destabilize politics, modern democratic states committed to a degree of equality depend on citizens' willingness to make sacrifices for the common good, whether in the everyday redistribution of income to meet welfare needs. or whether in the provision of collective goods and services such as education or health services. Therefore, in the view of the proponents of the new form of patriotism, a strong sense of solidarity is necessary for a stable democratic society.

The most prominent example of this search for new forms of solidarity is the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas's concept of Verfassangpatriotism (constitutional patriotism), which seeks to base citizens' loyalty not on a pre-political, homogeneous community but on a commitment to universal generosity. Principles enshrined in the constitution of a modern liberal state.

 To ensure that citizens who subscribe to different cultural, ethnic and religious lifestyles can coexist on equal terms with their own country and identify with them, Habermas argues that the modern constitutional state must ensure that its political culture is not biased or discriminatory. not particular subcultures. To achieve this, it is important to distinguish a majoritarian culture from a shared political culture respecting basic constitutional principles and fundamental law.

 On this account, citizens' membership of a nation no longer depends on appeals to a shared language or a common moral and cultural origin but simply reflects a shared political culture based on ideal liberal constitutional principles. Habermas's attempt to ground patriotism in attachment to universal liberalism is also associated with what is sometimes referred to as cosmopolitan patriotism, which seeks to create a post-national identity based on the recognition of democratic values ​​and human rights as conceptualized within a particular constitutional tradition.

Such cosmopolitan patriotism, advocated by British-born American philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, gives rise to a rooted cosmopolitanism that couples appreciation of different places and different peoples and a strong respect for the equal moral value of one's homeland and cultural identity. all people Proponents of constitutional patriotism often cite the United States as an example of a non-national polity united by overtly political patriotism.

 American political theorist John Shire, for example, refers to American patriotism as "pledged patriotism," a form of patriotic attachment characterized by a commitment to the principles and goals set forth in the Founding Agreement and a duty to carry on the work of the establishment. the fathers Another strand of contemporary thought appeals to classical republican principles of love of liberty, active citizenship and self-sacrifice for the common good in their efforts to forge new forms of solidarity that do not depend on pre-political, racial concepts. Homogeneous race.

However, critics of such attempts to create new, exclusionary forms of solidarity have expressed doubts about the extent to which patriotic sentiments can be reconciled with a commitment to universal principles. Although critics of constitutional patriotism have questioned the feasibility of Habermas's attempt to isolate political culture from the larger majority culture, it points out the extent to which the political culture of a culturally diverse society like America draws on national symbols and myths.

 With pre-political connotations, commentators such as the British philosopher Margaret Canovan have argued that classical republican patriotism was far more liberal and hostile to outsiders than modern proponents of the republican tradition suggest. According to Canovan, the patriotic virtues celebrated in the classical republican tradition are not primarily military virtues, but the republican preoccupation with the education and socialization of citizens to systematically cultivate loyalty and commitment to the state is seen by many contemporary liberals.

 An unacceptable form of manipulation and persuasion. Moreover, proponents of both constitutional and modern republican patriotism generally assume the existence of established political boundaries and common political institutions that have their origins in the rise and consolidation of nation-states. Thus, the extent to which patriotism can be reconciled with a commitment to universal values, respect for human rights, and tolerance of ethnic and national differences remains contested.