Attitudes towards the nation constitute the most important contemporary political cleavage. Discuss.

Transcription

1 Attitudes towards the nation constitute the most important contemporary political cleavage. Discuss. Andreas Gaardsdal BSc in International Business and Politics Political Science (BPOLO1293U) Midterm Ordinary Exam 30 th October 2017 Copenhagen Business School APA-referencing system 11,375 characters including spaces, excluding front page and bibliography 5.0 standard pages excluding front page and bibliography

2 There have come to exist borders between humankind which are meant to divide the world through the processes of inclusion and exclusion. Yet, the degree to which such closure should be applied is a matter of political debate and the attitudes to which the people of a nation holds towards said nation. Thus, a cleavage is formed between the supporters of the national and advocates of globalism. With the undeniable and continuous influx of globalisation, the debate between nationalism and cosmopolitanism is imperative. But to what degree does the attitude towards the nation create division within the nation? This assignment will argue that attitudes towards the nation constitute the most important contemporary political cleavage in post-materialist societies when dealing with social closure in Central Europe. This argument will be supported by looking at the existing cleavages of the contemporary political spectrum. Furthermore, this paper will outline the election themes and results of recent elections held in Austria and the Netherlands. This assignment will utilise theories and models within the themes of nationalism, political culture, and citizenship, to understand the ways in which the attitudes towards the nation form cleavages within a society. In contemporary post-materialist societies, the Marxist left/right dichotomy has been replaced by a new cleavage. The post-materialist society has moved focus from the survival needs of the population to self-expression needs, due to widespread affluence and education having allowed groups in society to surpass the traditional struggles of status, security, and income (McAdams, 2016) (Dalton, Flanagan, & Beck, 1984). Thus, the fight over material rights has transcended into a political debate over post-material rights in which tolerance plays an imperative role. This discussion of tolerance includes the degree of tolerance towards the environment, abortion, the nation, and foreigners (Inglehart, 1977). However, the dominant cleavage in post-materialist societies is considered the populist nationalistic belief versus the cosmopolitan philosophy (Brincker, 2017). Simultaneously with the third wave of globalisation, the findings from the World Value Survey show that Central Europe has increasingly moved towards secular-rationalism and self-expression values the last thirty years (World Value Survey, ). This has caused the political cleavage and discussion in society to turn towards values rather than economics. This can be seen in the resurgence of radical right-wing parties across Europe (Halikiopoulou, Mock, & Vasilopoulou, 2013). On the continuum of attitudes towards the nation, we find nationalism and cosmopolitanism often at different ends, which is why these two normative concepts must be considered to understand the cleavage they create. Here, nationalism is defined as the basic feeling that the national community should look after its own affairs in order that it can survive and prosper (Hall, 2013, p. 212). Conversely, cosmopolitanism believes that the interests of humankind ought to come before those of Page 2 of 8

3 the nation (Conversi, 2011). On this continuum, we find the national/global cleavage. This cleavage is seen in the increasing legitimacy and electoral success of radical right-wing parties in Europe. This is a response to the transition from traditional welfare to individualised capitalism caused by profound changes to the social, cultural and economic conditions of Europe (Betz, 1993). The presidential election in Austria of 2016 saw the most heated debates were on immigration. Here, the right-wing FPÖ s candidate, Norbert Hofer, called for stricter territorial closure. Opposite stood the Green candidate, Van der Bellen, emphasising cosmopolitan ideas of humane and international handling of refugees. National versus international came to be the major debate in the election, yet Van der Bellen won by the narrowest of margins (Umit, 2016). The attitudes towards the nation are closely linked to the processes of social closure. By social closure, Max Weber meant the processes by which social collectives seek to maximise rewards by restricting access to resources and opportunities (Parkin, 1998, p. 123). The notion of social closure has come to, as shown in the case of the Austrian presidential election, constitute a significant part of the political debate. A high degree of territorial and social closure is thus often linked with right-wing politics and nationalism, in which the political objective is to restrict residually defined outsiders from entering the territory of the nation-state. Interestingly, with the increased use of civic values in the discourse of the radical right-wing parties, outsiders of the nation have been defined increasingly positively in the national political debate. An example of such explicit description of intended social closure towards outsiders is the case of the Dutch far-right politician, Geert Wilders, stating I m against allowing immigrants coming out of Muslim countries into the country and The ideology of Islam is despicable, fascist, and wrong, (Halikiopoulou et al., 2013). Moreover, social closure, which is most commonly linked with including and/or excluding foreigners from the territory of the nation-state, highlights the political cleavage between nationalism and globalism. This is evident both in the major themes during campaigns as well as electoral results. In the 2017 parliamentary election in the Netherlands, the far-right nationalistic PVV secured 13% of the votes and became the second largest political party. Since its formation in 2006, the PVV has seen increasing electoral success parallel with an increase in immigration (Dennison, Geddes, & Talò, 2017). The cleavage in the Dutch society found on the question of social closure is further established by the finding that 50% of the Dutch population during the election considered non-western immigration as a threat to the Dutch way of living (Dennison et al., 2017). Similarly, in the Austrian parliamentary election of 2017, the issue of closure towards refugees became a defining hallmark of Page 3 of 8

4 the election with 55% of the winning party ÖVP s voters stating the sudden toughening of the stance on immigrants and refugees secured their vote (Oltermann, 2017). Cosmopolitanism facilitates an idea of global citizenship based on civic values (Garner, Ferdinand, & Lawson, 2016), whereas nationalism argues for the strengthening of the national citizenship based on ethnic values (Halikiopoulou et al., 2013). Here, it becomes interesting to look at the notion of reversed social closure. Thus, the nation of a state must consider if it wants to be a part of a larger social collective to maximise rewards by not being restricted access to resources and opportunities. This link between citizenship, social closure and the attitude held towards the nation is clear in the debate on membership of the European Union. Here, it is evident that stronger national feelings and the insiders concerns of outsiders cultures emerging within a national culture influence the opinion towards transnational cooperation such as the EU negatively (Carey, 2002). In the Austrian presidential election of 2016, nationalistic and globalist feelings were juxtaposed in the arena of selfgovernance, represented by Hofer, opposed to the intergovernmental cooperation of the EU proposed by Van der Bellen (Umit, 2016). So far, this paper is built on the assumption that the classic left/right divide has been replaced by the national/global cleavage. However, some scholars argue that even in the contemporary political climate, the classic left/right divide still constitutes the most important political cleavage on different social strata in society (McAdams, 2016). Naturally, the population of a state can be divided into groups defined by their status, security, and income. However, this way of dividing society belongs to a different political era where the difference between high- and low-income groups in society was more extreme compared to the radically decreasing gap between said groups (McAdams, 2016). Accordingly, the economic divide with low-income on the left and high-income on the right has seen the case of class inversion. Here, the lower-income group in post-materialist societies has moved towards the nationalistic right, and higher-income groups have moved towards the more cosmopolitan left (Inglehart, 1977). The movement of focus from economic to tolerance issues was evident in the themes of the Austrian parliamentary election of 2017, in which 51% of the voters said immigrationand refugee-policies were imperative to their support, whereas only 16% said the condition of the employment market (Meschede, 2017). The concept of nationalism juxtaposed to globalism in constituting the major political cleavage on social closure necessitates the existence of a nation within a country. However, it can be argued that the existence of a nation is not always given in both material and post-material countries. Such is the Page 4 of 8

5 case in the societies of Melanesia in which tribal societies result in social fragmentation with a lack of national feeling (Fukuyama, 2011). Similarly, a high degree of ethnocultural diversity makes it difficult to find homogenous ethnocultural national entities in Europe and North America (Garner et al., 2016). This makes it impossible for the national/global dichotomy to constitute a feasible cleavage in a society with lack of national identity. However, such a level of social fragmentation as in Melanesia is not seen in the contemporary post-material societies. Conclusively, this argument falls apart when looking closer at the concept of social closure and the relationship between closure and the nation. Noncitizens of a given state are excluded from the right to universal suffrage creating a simple plebiscitary democratic system based on citizenship (Brubaker, 1994). Thus, social closure is not a result of the uniformity of the population of the nation-state but is a product of insiders attitudes towards the nation. This paper has shown the classic left/right dichotomy has been replaced by a local/global cleavage in post-materialist societies in Central Europe. Moreover, evidence of the rise of right-wing nationalism simultaneously with the third wave of globalisation has been presented. Thus, the attitude to which people feel towards the nation on a continuum of nationalism vis-á-vis cosmopolitanism constitutes the most important political cleavage when dealing with social closure. Here nationalists argue for a high degree of territorial closure and cosmopolitans calls for benevolent social closure. This paper has analysed the contemporary political situation in Central Europe, why future investigations could consider national/cosmopolitan feelings with regards to major political events such as Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, as well as recent elections in Germany, the Czech Republic, and France. In addition, future research could investigate whether the recent elections will come to constitute a punctuated equilibrium in the political debate. The significance of what has been established in this paper is important to remember when considering the shifting contemporary political landscape of parties in the electorate. Page 5 of 8

6 References Betz, H.-G. (1993). The Two Faces of Radical Right-Wing Populism in Western Europe. The University of Notre Dame. Brincker, B. (2017). Lecture on Nations, the Nation-State, and Nationalism. Copenhagen Business School. Brubaker, R. (1994). The Institution of Citizenship. In R. Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (pp ). Harvard University Press. Carey, S. (2002). Undivided Loyalties: Is National Identity an Obstacle to European Integration? European Union Politics. Conversi, D. (2011). Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism. In A. Leoussi, Encyclopedia of Nationalism (1st ed.). Transaction Publishers. Dalton, R., Flanagan, S., & Beck, P. (1984). Electoral Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies. Princeton University Press. Dennison, J., Geddes, A., & Talò, T. (2017). The Dutch Aren't Turning Against Immigration - the Salience of the Immigration Issue is what Drives Wilders' Support. The London School of Economics and Political Science. Fukuyama, F. (2011). The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution. Profile Books. Garner, R., Ferdinand, P., & Lawson, S. (2016). Introduction to Politics (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. Halikiopoulou, D., Mock, S., & Vasilopoulou, S. (2013). The Civic Zeitgeist: Nationalism and Liberal Values in the European Radical Right. In D. Halikiopoulou, S. Mock, & S. Vasilpoulou, Nations and Nationalism (pp ). ASEN/Blackwell Publishing. Hall, J. (2013). State and Nation. In B. Brincker (Ed.), Introduction to Political Sociology (pp ). Hans Reitzels Forlag. Inglehart, R. (1977). The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles Among Western Publics. Princeton University Press. Page 6 of 8

7 McAdams, J. (2016). The New Class in Post-Industrial Society. Springer International Publishing. Meschede, L. (2017, October 10th). Deswegen Rückt Österreich Nach Rechts. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Oltermann, P. (2017, October 15). Conservative Sebastian Kurz on track to become Austria's next leader. The Guardian. Parkin, F. (1998). Marxism and Class Theory: A Bourgeois Critique. In R. F. Levine, Social Class and Stratification: Classic Statements and Theoretical Debate. Rowan & Littlefield Publishers. Umit, M. G. (2016). The 2016 Austrian Presidential Election: A Tale of Three Divides. In M. G. Umit, Federal Studies (pp ). Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. World Value Survey. ( ). Cultural Map. World Value Survey. Page 7 of 8

8 Feedback Stronger opposing arguments Melanesia irrelevant? Everything must be relevant Perhaps take something else than attitudes towards the nation perhaps gender? Who is opposing the argument? Mention specific scholars. More implications clearer, less diffuse Policy implications o How is it of importance to political parties that the greatest cleavage is no longer classes? Do they need to change their discourse and focus towards social closure? o How does these findings change democratic principles and systems one party versus two party o Implications for individuals, groups of people, nations, states, EU, etc o What would happen in real life very open to creativity o How would the matter of social closure influence in a greater context makes room for a more creative discussion which does not necessarily need empirical support. References Only 1 parentheses in APA even if two different sources Page 8 of 8