Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-fqc5m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T15:20:25.602Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Liberal nationalist virtue

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2012

Tim Soutphommasane
Affiliation:
Monash University, Victoria
Get access

Summary

The idea of a national-cultural dialogue involves not only a certain understanding of national culture but also of citizenship. Being a citizen cannot be reduced to bearing the rights of political membership and discharging attendant responsibilities, such as abiding by the law and participating in elections. Belonging to a national community entails identifying with the public realm as one's own and seeing one's pursuit of a good life as entwined with the well-being of the nation. It entails a citizen seeing herself as a participant in a public conversation, one constituted in part by reflection on the meaning of a national identity.

It is possible to understand such requirements as those of civic virtue. If a virtuous disposition must mean an aspiration to achieve certain standards of excellence, a liberal nationalist mode of civic virtue involves an aspiration to achieve the best of one's national tradition through deliberative effort. Liberal nationalism seems to demand three particular deliberative virtues from citizens: political knowledge, critical political judgement and mutual respect. While these virtues build on the attitudes of fair play and tolerance required by public reason, there are reasons to doubt that they can be wholly political virtues drawn from public justification. Because of its emphasis on a national-cultural dialogue as a means of negotiating cultural diversity, liberal nationalism prescribes a practice of citizenship that is substantially different from the one outlined in a Rawlsian political liberalism (arguably the starting point of any contemporary liberal political theory).

Type
Chapter
Information
The Virtuous Citizen
Patriotism in a Multicultural Society
, pp. 105 - 128
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×