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{{Short description|Form of nationalism}}
{{distinguish|Constitutional patriotism|National liberalism}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}}
{{nationalism sidebar|types}}

'''Civic nationalism''', otherwise known as '''democratic nationalism''', is a form of [[nationalism]] that adheres to traditional liberal values of [[Freedom (political)|freedom]], [[Toleration|tolerance]], [[Egalitarianism|equality]], and [[individual rights]], and is not based on [[ethnocentrism]].<ref name=Auer>{{cite book|last1=Auer|first1=Stefan|title=Liberal Nationalism in Central Europe|date=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=1134378602|page=5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BhNsM_ttOb4C&pg=PA5|access-date=13 May 2017}}</ref><ref>Tamir, Yael. 1993. ''Liberal Nationalism.'' Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|0-691-07893-9}}{{Page needed |date=June 2016}}; [[Will Kymlicka]]. 1995. ''Multicultural Citizenship.'' Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-827949-3}}{{Page needed |date=June 2016}}; David Miller. 1995. [http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-829356-9 ''On Nationality.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000601183631/http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-829356-9 |date=1 June 2000 }} Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-828047-5}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Beiner |first=Ronald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iQL8MWJ8PhYC&pg=PA202 |title=Liberalism, Nationalism, Citizenship: Essays on the Problem of Political Community |publisher=UBC Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-7748-0987-0 |language=en |quote=As soon as there emerges a form of civic life, norms and practices of citizenship, a shared political history, and a politically defined way of life, there is a basis for individuals relating to each other as citizens (as opposed to as co-religionists, members of the same ethnic group, of the same gender or sexual orientation, and so on): the distinctively civic relation. This whole conception is sometimes called civic nationalism (or what Jürgen Habermas calls constitutional patriotism).}}</ref> Civic nationalists often defend the value of [[national identity]] by saying that individuals need it as a partial shared aspect of their identity (an upper identity) in order to lead meaningful, autonomous lives,<ref>Kymlicka, Will. 1995. ''Multicultural Citizenship''. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-827949-3}}. For criticism, see: Patten, Alan. 1999. [https://www.doi.org/10.1111/j.1354-5078.1999.00001.x "The Autonomy Argument for Liberal Nationalism."] ''[[Nations and Nationalism (journal)|Nations and Nationalism]].'' 5(1): 1-17.</ref> and that [[Democracy|democratic]] [[Polity|polities]] need a [[national identity]] to function properly.<ref>Miller, David. 1995. On Nationality. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-828047-5}}. For criticism, see: [[Arash Abizadeh|Abizadeh, Arash]]. 2002. [http://abizadeh.wix.com/arash#!Article-Does-Liberal-Democracy-Presuppose-a-Cultural-Nation/c22zv/558da7580cf298ff2bcbdc82 "Does Liberal Democracy Presuppose a Cultural Nation? Four Arguments."] ''American Political Science Review'' 96 (3): 495-509; Abizadeh, Arash. 2004. "[http://abizadeh.wix.com/arash#!Article-Liberal-Nationalist-vs-Postnational-Social-Integration/c22zv/558eaf0b0cf20d45521f9542 Liberal Nationalist versus Postnational Social Integration]." ''[[Nations and Nationalism (journal)|Nations and Nationalism]]'' 10(3): 231-250.</ref> '''Liberal nationalism''' is used in the same sense as "civic nationalism", but [[liberal ethnonationalism]] also exists,<ref name=Taiwan>{{cite book |author1=Glenn Drover |author2=Graham Johnson |author3=Julia Lai Po-Wah Tao |title=Regionalism and Subregionalism in East Asia: The Dynamics of China |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OO9OAAAAMAAJ&q=%22liberal+ethno-nationalism%22 |date=2001 |publisher=Nova Science |pages=101|isbn=978-1-56072-872-6 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Mark Hewitson |author2=Timothy Baycroft |title=What Is a Nation?; Europe 1789-1914 |date=2001 |publisher=OUP Oxford |pages=180}}</ref> and "[[state nationalism]]" is a branch of civic nationalism, but it can also be illiberal.

Civic nationhood is a political identity built around shared [[citizenship]] within the state. Thus, a "[[Civic nationalities|civic nation]]" defines itself not by culture but by political institutions and liberal principles, which its citizens pledge to uphold. Membership in the civic nation is open to every person by citizenship, regardless of culture or ethnicity. Those who share these values are considered members of the nation<ref name= definition>{{cite journal|journal=Philosophy & Public Affairs|author=ANNA STILZ|title=Civic Nationalism and Language Policy|page=257|volume=37|issue=3}}</ref> and, in theory, a civic nation or state does not aim to promote one culture over another.<ref name="definition" /> German philosopher [[Jürgen Habermas]] has argued that immigrants to a [[Liberal democracy|liberal-democratic]] state need not assimilate into the host culture but only accept the principles of the country's constitution ([[constitutional patriotism]]).<ref name="definition" />

Civic nationalism is frequently contrasted with [[ethnic nationalism]]. According to [[Donald Ipperciel]], civic nationalism historically was a determining factor in the development of modern [[Constitution|constitutional]] and [[Democracy|democratic]] forms of government, whereas ethnic nationalism has been more associated with [[Authoritarianism|authoritarian rule]] and even [[dictatorship]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ipperciel |first=Donald |date=2007 |title=Constitutional democracy and civic nationalism |journal=[[Nations and Nationalism (journal)|Nations and Nationalism]] |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]] on behalf of the [[Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism]] |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=395–416 |doi=10.1111/j.1469-8129.2007.00293.x |issn=1469-8129}}</ref> Indeed, the 20th-century revival of civic nationalism played a key role in the ideological effort against [[racism]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=[[Nancy Foner]]|author2=Patric Simon|title=Fear, Anxiety, and National Identity Immigration and Belonging in North America and Western Europe|publisher=[[Russell Sage Foundation]]|year=2015|page=38|isbn=9781610448536|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NRooCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT38}}</ref> However, as [[Umut Özkırımlı]] states, "civic" nations can be as intolerant and cruel as the so-called "ethnic" nations, citing [[Jacobins|French Jacobin]] techniques of persecution that were utilized by [[History of fascism|20th-century fascists]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Özkırımlı |first=Umut |author-link=Umut Özkırımlı |year=2005 |title=Contemporary Debates on Nationalism: A Critical Introduction |location=London |publisher=[[Red Globe Press]] |edition=1st |pages=27–28 |isbn=9780333947739}}</ref> Some argue civic nationalism inevitably involves an underlying ethnic concept of national belonging because abstract values cannot be related to a specific place.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Etherington |first1=John |title=Nationalism, Exclusion and Violence: A Territorial Approach |journal=[[Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism]] |date=2007 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=24–44 |doi=10.1111/j.1754-9469.2007.tb00160.x |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1754-9469.2007.tb00160.x |access-date=20 February 2024|url-access=subscription }} p.31</ref>

==History==
{{or-section|date=January 2017}}
Civic nationalism lies within the traditions of [[rationalism]] and [[liberalism]], but as a form of nationalism it is contrasted with [[ethnic nationalism]]. [[Ernest Renan]] is often thought to be an early civic nationalist.<ref>Ernest Renan. "[[What is a Nation?]]", 1882; cf. Chaim Gans, ''The Limits of Nationalism'', Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 11.</ref> Philosopher [[Hans Kohn]] was one of the first to differentiate civic nationalism from [[ethnic nationalism]] in his 1944 publication ''[[The Idea of Nationalism: A Study in Its Origins and Background]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Tamir|first=Yael (Yuli)|date=2019-05-11|title=Not So Civic: Is There a Difference Between Ethnic and Civic Nationalism?|journal=Annual Review of Political Science|language=en|volume=22|issue=1|pages=419–434|doi=10.1146/annurev-polisci-022018-024059|issn=1094-2939|doi-access=free}}</ref> Membership of the civic [[nation]] is considered voluntary, as in Renan's classical definition in "[[Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?]]" of the nation as a "daily referendum" characterized by the "will to live together".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Renan |first=Ernest |date=March 11, 1882 |title=What Is A Nation |url=http://ucparis.fr/files/9313/6549/9943/What_is_a_Nation.pdf |access-date=November 29, 2022 |website=UCParis}}</ref> Some authors criticize that definition used by Renan, based on a "daily referendum", because of the ambiguity of the concept and its idealization. They argue that the arguments used by Renan at the conference "What is a Nation?" are not consistent with his thinking.<ref>[[Joxe Azurmendi|Azurmendi, Joxe]] (2014): ''Historia, arraza, nazioa ''. Donostia, Elkar. {{ISBN|978-84-9027-297-8}}</ref> Civic-national ideals influenced the development of [[representative democracy]] in countries such as the [[United States]] and [[France]] (see the [[United States Declaration of Independence]] of 1776, and the ''[[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]]'' of 1789).<ref>{{cite book|author=[[Michael Keating (political scientist)|Michael Keating]]|title=Nations Against the State The New Politics of Nationalism in Quebec, Catalonia and Scotland|publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]|year=1996|page=6|isbn=9780230374348|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l2TNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT178}}</ref>

The [[Corsican nationalism|Corsican nationalist]] movement organized around the [[FLNC]] is giving a civic definition of the Corsican nation ("destiny community") in the continuity of [[Pasquale Paoli]] and the ideas of the [[Lumières]]. The [[Scottish National Party]],<ref name="O'Neill2004">{{cite book|author=Michael O'Neill|title=Devolution and British Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tuzpsTYEZ28C&pg=PA92|year=2004|publisher=Pearson/Longman|isbn=978-0-582-47274-7|pages=92–}}</ref><ref name="SalmonImber2008">{{cite book|author1=Trevor C. Salmon|author2=Mark F. Imber|title=Issues In International Relations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ayz0kWKhKacC&pg=PA50|date=6 June 2008|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-203-92659-8|pages=50–}}</ref><ref name="ethnicitywithoutgroups" /> as well as [[Plaid Cymru]],<ref name="ethnicitywithoutgroups">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZrV9fnIkgjcC&q=plaid+cymru+%22civic+nationalism%22&pg=PA134 |title=Ethnicity Without Groups |first=Rogers |last=Brubaker |publisher=Harvard University Press |date=2004 |isbn=0674015398 |page=134}}</ref> which advocate independence of their respective nations from the United Kingdom, proclaim themselves to be civic nationalist parties, in which they advocate the independence and popular sovereignty of the people living in their nation's society, not individual ethnic groups. The [[Republican Left of Catalonia]] supports a civic [[Catalan independentism]] and defends a [[Catalan Republic]] based on [[republicanism]] and civic values within a diverse society.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Els valors republicans com a pilar de la nostra societat|url=https://www.esquerra.cat/ca/els-valors-republicans-com-a-pilar-de-la-nostra-societat|language=ca}}</ref>

The [[Union of Cypriots]] define its ideology as [[Cypriot nationalism]],<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Aldrich |first=Alan |date=17 August 2018 |title=Cypriotism in the Twenty-First Century |url=https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2018/08/17/cypriotism-in-the-twenty-first-century/ |magazine=[[Bella Caledonia]] |location=Scotland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180821064324/https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2018/08/17/cypriotism-in-the-twenty-first-century/ |archive-date=21 August 2018 |access-date=21 August 2018 }}</ref> a civic nationalism that focuses on the shared identity of [[Greek Cypriots]] and [[Turkish Cypriots]]. It highlights both communities' common culture, heritage and traditions as well as economic, political, and social rights. It also supports the reunification of Cyprus and the end of foreign interference by [[Greece]], [[Turkey]], and the [[United Kingdom]].<ref name="HayMenon2007">{{cite book|author1=Colin Hay|author2=Anand Menon|title=European Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XUecAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA125|date=18 January 2007|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-928428-3|pages=125}}</ref> [[Moldova]]n diplomat [[Mihai Gribincea]] described the [[Party of Action and Solidarity]] (PAS) as promoting a "civic Moldovan nation".<ref>{{Citation | url=https://www.podul.ro/articol/26199/natiunea-civica-moldoveneasca-intre-vis-european-si-amnezie-identitara| title="Națiunea civică moldovenească" – între vis european și amnezie identitară| newspaper=Podul.ro| date= 2025-06-06| accessdate=2025-10-03}}</ref> Outside Europe, it has also been used to describe the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] in the United States during the Civil War Era.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YJ3CrOiJ6wYC&q=conservative+%22civic+nationalism%22&pg=PA140|title=Fenians, Freedmen, and Southern Whites: Race and Nationality in the Era of Reconstruction|author=Snay, Mitchell|publisher=Louisiana State University Press|year=2007|isbn=9780807132739}}</ref> Civic nationalism shares elements of the [[Switzerland|Swiss]] concept of ''{{Interlanguage link|Willensnation|de}}'', which is German for "nation by will", coined by [[Carl Hilty]], understood as shared experience and dedication by citizens.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

==Criticism==
Former Israeli minister [[Yael Tamir]] has argued that the differences between ethnic and civic nationalism are blurred. She posits: "By waving the civic flag, Western democracies pretend to be more peaceful and inclusive than they really are, fostering a self-image that allows them to exonerate themselves, leaving them unprepared to deal with internal conflicts".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Tamir|first=Yael (Yuli)|date=2019|title=Not So Civic: Is There a Difference Between Ethnic and Civic Nationalism?|journal=Annual Review of Political Science|language=en|volume=22|issue=1|pages=419–434|doi=10.1146/annurev-polisci-022018-024059|issn=1094-2939|doi-access=free}}</ref> The distinction between ethnic and civic nationalism has also been criticized by scholars like [[Bernard Yack]]<ref name="Yack">{{cite journal | url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08913819608443417?journalCode=rcri20 | doi=10.1080/08913819608443417 | title=The myth of the civic nation | date=1996 | last1=Yack | first1=Bernard | journal=Critical Review | volume=10 | issue=2 | pages=193–211 | url-access=subscription }}</ref> and [[Umut Özkirimli|Umut Özkırımlı]].<ref>Özkırımlı, Umut. (2005). Contemporary Debates on Nationalism: A Critical Introduction. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.</ref> Yack rejects Renan's notion of "voluntary" civic nationality as an illusion, arguing this "misrepresents political reality as surely as the ethnonationalist myths it is designed to combat", going on to state how cultural memories form an inseparable part of every national political identity.<ref name="Yack">{{cite journal | url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08913819608443417?journalCode=rcri20 | doi=10.1080/08913819608443417 | title=The myth of the civic nation | date=1996 | last1=Yack | first1=Bernard | journal=Critical Review | volume=10 | issue=2 | pages=193–211 | url-access=subscription }}</ref> Quoting [[Rogers Brubaker]], Özkırımlı argues:{{Blockquote|text=Since all nations lay claim to a unique place in history and to certain boundaries, all national identities are exclusionary. In that sense, all nations are ethnic nations [...] Brubaker elaborates on this, claiming that there are two different ways of mapping culture onto the ethnic-civic distinction. Ethnic nationalism may be interpreted narrowly, as involving an emphasis on descent. In this case, Brubaker argues, there is very little ethnic nationalism around, since on this view an emphasis on common culture has to be coded as a species of civic nationalism. If, however, ethnic nationalism is interpreted broadly, as ethnocultural, while civic nationalism is interpreted narrowly, as involving a cultural conception of citizenship, the problem is the opposite: 'civic nationalism gets defined out of existence, and virtually all nationalisms would be coded as ethnic or cultural'. Even the paradigmatic cases of civic nationalism, France and America, would cease to count as civic nationalism, since they have a crucial cultural component.|author=Umut Özkırımlı|source=Contemporary Debates on Nationalism: A Critical Engagement, pp.24-5}}

Following Brubaker, John Etherington demonstrates how civic nationalism inevitably involves an underlying ethnic concept of national belonging. Because supposed civic values are abstract, universal and thus open to all, "they cannot be related to a specific place – the national [[homeland]]. Thus, any civic conception of the nation is dependent on a prior ethnic conception because of the need to establish who belongs to the nation and its homeland and who does not".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Etherington |first1=John |title=Nationalism, Exclusion and Violence: A Territorial Approach |journal=Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism |date=2007 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=24–44 |doi=10.1111/j.1754-9469.2007.tb00160.x |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1754-9469.2007.tb00160.x |access-date=20 February 2024|url-access=subscription }} p.31</ref>

==See also==
* [[Americanism (ideology)]]
* [[Civic virtue]]
* [[Composite nationalism]]
* [[Constitutional patriotism]]
* [[Cultural nationalism]]
* [[Imagined community]]
* [[Liberal Nationalism (Tamir)|''Liberal Nationalism'' (book)]]
* [[Nation-building]]
* [[National liberalism]]
* [[Plurinationalism]]
* [[Postcolonial anarchism]]
* [[State nationalism]], a form of civic nationalism, but can support politically authoritarianism.
* [[Bourgeois nationalism]]

== Citations ==
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
* {{cite journal|last=Tournier-Sol|first=Karine|year=2015|title=Reworking the Eurosceptic and Conservative Traditions into a Populist Narrative: UKIP's Winning Formula?|journal=Journal of Common Market Studies|volume=53|number=1|pages=140–56|doi=10.1111/jcms.12208|s2cid=142738345}}

== External links ==
* {{wiktionary-inline|when in Rome, do as the Romans do}}

{{Nationalism}}
{{Liberalism}}

[[Category:Anti-racism]]
[[Category:Communitarianism]]
[[Category:Cosmopolitanism]]
[[Category:Cultural politics]]
[[Category:Immigration activism]]
[[Category:Liberalism and nationalism]]
[[Category:Pluralism (philosophy)]]
[[Category:Political philosophy]]
[[Category:Political science terminology]]
[[Category:Rationalism]]
[[Category:Social ideologies]]
[[Category:State nationalism]]

[[de:Willensnation]]

Civic nationalism - Revision history

Budhu at 01:26, 29 March 2026