7 4 September 2016
INTERNATIONAL
N
ationalism, nativism, populism are
in the air these days. Their relation
to democracy is widely seen as prob-
lematic. Can political philosophy
help? I offer Village readers this ABC
of the so-called “national question”:
A
For democrats and progressives internation-
alism, not nationalism, is the primary value.
We are internationalists out of solidarity as
members of the human race. As interna-
tionalists we seek the emancipation of
mankind. The human race is divided into
nations. Therefore we stand for the self-
determination of nations. The right of
nations to self-determination was first pro-
claimed as a collective human right, a
democratic principle of universal validity, in
the Declaration of the Rights of Man of the
French Revolution. It is now a basic principle
of international law and a core principle of
modern democracy enshrined in the United
Nations Charter.
Internationalism does not mean that one
is called on to urge people of other nations
to assert their right to self-determination,
but that one respects their wishes and
shows solidarity with them if they do that.
It is as true of the life of nations as of indi-
viduals that separation, mutual recognition
of boundaries and mutual respect based
upon that – viz. legal and political equality,
neither dominance nor submission - are the
prerequisites of free and friendly coopera-
tion between the parties, of internationalism
in other words. Good fences make good
neighbours.
B
Nations exist as communities before
nationalisms and nation States.
Some nations are ancient, some young,
some in process of being formed. Like all
human groupings, for example the family,
clan, tribe, they are fuzzy at the edges. No
neat definition will encompass all cases.
The empirical test is to ask people them
-
selves. If people have passed beyond the
stage of kinship society where the political
unit is the clan or tribe, they will know them-
selves what nation they belong to. This is
the political and democratic test too. If
enough people in a nation want to establish
their own State, they have the right to do
that, for normally political democracy exists
only at the level of the national community
and the nation State.
C
To analyse nations and the national ques-
tion in terms of ‘nationalisms’ is
philosophical idealism, looking at the
mental reflection rather than the thing it
reflects.
Nationalism developed as an ideology legit-
imating the formation of nation States in the
18th century, although its elements can be
found centuries before in some of the
world's oldest nation States - Denmark,
England, France, China, Japan. Nations
evolve historically as stable, long-lasting
communities of people, sharing a common
language and territory and the common cul-
ture and history that derive from that. These
generate the solidarities, mutual identifica-
tions and shared interests that distinguish
one people from another. Such features
characterise the demos, the collective
“We”, that constitutes a people possessing
the right to national self-determination.
D
Nationalism, properly understood, is the
complement of internationalism, not its
opposite.
The word nationalism can refer to very dif-
ferent things. Hitler and Mussolini are
stigmatised as nationalists in their coun-
tries. Gandhi and Mandela are praised as
nationalists in theirs. Pearse and Connolly
in ours. Nationalism can mean imperialism,
xenophobia and chauvinism in one context,
or patriotism, love of country and support
for its political independence in another. If
policy discussion is to be fruitful, one
should indicate the sense in which one uses
the word.
E
As there are different social classes in every
nation, national movements are normally
multi-class.
If the political Left does not stand for a
country’s national independence and
democracy, the political Right will. The Left
then often stigmatises movements for inde-
pendence as ‘right-wing’. That is the main
reason why much of the Left in Europe today
is truly “left “- namely left high and dry,
wanly contemplating developments it
cannot influence or control, bereft of the
capacity for ideological hegemony. Ire
-
land’s James Connolly taught that the Left
should above all else be national, but Con-
nolly has had small influence on the
evolution of Ireland’s “Left”.
A primer on
Internationalism and
nationalism
by Anthony Coughlan
September 2016 7 5
F
Mankind is still at the relatively early stage
of the formation of nation States.
Only a dozen or so contemporary States are
more than a few centuries old. The number
of States in the United Nations has gone
from some 60 in 1945 to a little under 200
today. European States have increased from
30 to 50 since 1989. This process has not
ended even in Western Europe where
people have been at the business of nation
State formation for centuries. For example
Scotland, Flanders, Catalonia. It has
scarcely begun in Africa and Asia, where the
bulk of mankind lives, where large numbers
of people still belong to clan-tribal societies
based on kinship, and as yet have only an
embryonic national consciousness. The
world is almost certainly moving towards an
international community of 400 or more
States.
G
Multinational States, whether unitary or
federal, must respect the right to self-
determination of the nations that comprise
them if they are to be stable and endure.
The right to self-determination does not
require that a nation seek to establish a
separate State. Nations can co-exist amica-
bly with other nations inside a multinational
State, as for example the English, Welsh
and Scots have done for centuries inside the
British State, or the many Indian nationali-
ties inside India. They can do this, however,
only if their national rights are respected
and the smaller nations do not feel
oppressed by the larger ones, in particular
culturally and linguistically. If this condition
is not observed, political pressures are
likely to develop to break up the multina-
tional State in question.
H
Shared civic nationality is the political
basis of multinational States; shared ethnic
nationality the political basis of nation
States.
In both cases, if the State is a democratic
one, all citizens will be equal before the law
and the rights of minority nationalities in
multinational States and of national minori-
ties in nation States will be equally
respected.
I
Internationalism and supranationalism are
opposites.
Internationalism, from Latin “inter”,
“between”, refers to co-operation between
nations. Supranationalism, from Latin
“supra”,“above”, implies rule over nations
by a higher authority. This can embrace a
multinational Federation where sovereignty
is divided between a superior federal level
and a lower national or regional level as in
such federal states as India, Pakistan, Russia
or Nigeria. It can refer to classical empires
such as the British, French, Spanish, Dutch
or Austro-Hungarian, where different peo-
ples were ruled from a distant imperial
capital. Or it can refer to the contemporary
European Union where national powers have
been shifted to unelected supranational
institutions, the EU Commission, Council of
Ministers and Court of Justice, bodies that
lack a European “demos” that could give
them democratic legitimacy. The suprana-
tionalism of the EU has made the national
question, the issue of national independence
and democracy, of who makes or who should
make the laws, the central issue of politics
all over Europe today.
J
Globalisation as an ideology is also
the antithesis of internationalism.
As a description of contemporary fact glo-
balisation comprehends such features of
modern life as the internet, mass travel,
world trade and climate change, that have
shrunk our planet to a Global Village. As an
ideology, however, globalization, also
known as global capitalism, extols free
movement of capital, which hollows out
democratic States and frees private owners
from the social controls that sovereign
States alone are strong enough to impose
on them, either individually or in concert,
with a view to restraining the perennial
“furies of private interest” and advancing
the common good of the State or States in
question.
Anthony Coughlan is Associate Professor Emeri-
tus in Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin
Global capitalism frees
private owners from
the social controls that
sovereign States alone
are strong enough to
impose on them

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