The Ties that Bind: An Empirical Evaluation of the Theory of Liberal Nationalism
Programmegroup Challenges to Democratic Representation
The aim of this NWO funded research is to examine how people living within the boundaries of a national community think about its social contours and, more specifically, how these conceptions of national identity affect, across different political, social and cultural contexts, relevant social and political attitudes necessary for the viability of liberal democracies of the 21st century, as there are trust and related types of horizontal solidarity, and vertical relations with the nation-state and supra-national organizations.
Funded by: NWO
Period: 1/4/2012 until 31/3/2016
While Europe has become an immigration continent (Barroso, 2007), research has demonstrated that native citizens perceive immigrants as mainly a threat for their national identity (Sides & Citrin, 2007; Sniderman & Hagendoorn, 2007).
The argument is that as immigration continuous, cultural heterogeneity will erode the cultural fabric of the political community.
Despite the prominence of national identity in debates on social cohesion, empirical research evaluating the beneficial effects of national identity for social harmony of a community remains scarce.
Nevertheless, there are several theoretical arguments why it can be expected that nationalism has positive externalities for contemporary democratic nation-states. Especially David Miller (1995, 2000) is the most vocal proponent of the position commonly referred to as liberal nationalism.
The theoretical mechanism about the positive role of national identity in bringing about social cohesion is largely framed around affect attachment to the nation should lead to increased trust and horizontal solidarity.
- However, what is mainly missing in current, mainly theoretical, scholarship is an empirical test of liberal nationalism by looking precisely at what kind of ties are able to bind people together in a comparative cross-national perspective using public opinion data.