179
Littera
Denise Schaeffer
*“RETHInKIng ROuSSEAu On
nATIOnALISM AnD POLITICAL IDEnTITY”
SUMMARY
In his works on Poland and Corsica, Rousseau emphasizes the importance of forming citizens’ souls into a “national pattern.” At first glance, Rousseau’s model citizens in these works appear to be mere products of their social conditioning who embrace their political identity utterly unselfconsciously. However, as much as Rousseau insists upon the strong passionate identification of the individual with the whole, this identification is not seamless. He also introduces considerations of choice and judgment that complicate his view of social cohesion.
His view of political identity, especially as it is maintained over time, is more dynamic than it first appears.
Keywords: Rousseau, Nationalism, Political Identity, Poland, Corsica
T
urkey occupies a paradoxical position with regard to modernity, striving to maintain a distinctive national identity while negotiating various challenges of rapid modernization and globalization, all in the context of an enduring Ottoman legacy. Rousseau’s political philosophy explores and illuminates the tension between national identity and modernity in the broadest sense. His principles of popular and national sovereignty served as a source of inspiration for the populist, secular, state-centric program of the Kemalists insofar as his conception of national identity is both democratic and political, that is, civic (grounded in citizenship rather than in ethnicity or religion). Yet at times in his writings he also seems to support for preserving more traditional bases of political identity. This reflects an interesting tension between preservation and change in his thought.Rousseau’s insights are thus not only relevant to the historical construction of the modern
* Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA, USA.
