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Liberal nationalism is an important recent development in political theory that challenges liberals to acknowledge the significance of nationality in people's lives, and its role in the justification and implementation of liberal policies. If liberal nationalists are correct, national identity serves basic human needs and is not only compatible with liberal ideals of equality and individuality, but must be fostered for these ideals to flourish and for the liberal-democratic state to function. In this article I analyze the doctrine of liberal nationalism and argue that it actually points to the significance of democratic action, not national sentiment, for liberal states. Civic ties between citizens engaged in the public domain, such as those articulated by contemporary democratic theorists, have more relevance for addressing the functional requirements of liberal states than the bonds of national identity.
Liberal nationalist thinkers such as Yael Tamir, David Miller, Neil MacCormick, Avishai Margalit, and Joseph Raz attempt to reconcile the ideals of liberalism with the facts of national affiliation. Their contemporary theoretical project is significant because it draws attention to the importance of national identity in people's lives and takes seriously the possibility that national identity is not atavistic impulse, elite-manipulated desire, or short-sighted preference, but something that serves basic human needs. It is true that some, very few, liberal thinkers have considered national affiliation as a facet of legitimate governance. But these, like J. S. Mill in the 19th century and Isaiah Berlin in the 20th, gave nationality only a grudging respect as a somewhat unfortunate fact of life (Mill 1972; Berlin 1980). Liberal nationalists do more than point to the reality of national identity; they attempt to justify national affiliations in the same way all other liberal ideals are justified. They believe that without some understanding of nationalism that recognizes its basic importance in human lives, liberalism is incomplete.
Liberal nationalists' arguments are significant, too, because they point out how a number of settled aspects of liberalism as a public philosophy may be dependent on social ties like those of nationality Since liberal ideals as part of an action-oriented political ideology come embodied in a nation-state, not merely a state, this is one way liberalism might be seen as already nationalistic. But liberal nationalists make a more fundamental...