Democracy

1
Democracy (trans)Nationalism

• Asbed Kotchikian
• Florida State University
• asbed_at_hotmail.com

2
Why Bother?

• Nationalism defines everything
• Is it globalization, cosmopolitism or
  trans-nationalism?
• Is democracy sexy?
• Can all 3 coexist?

3
Nationalism

• Nations before nationalism (Anthony Smith)
• French Revolution (1789)
• Age of revolutions (mid-19th century)
• Nationalism as an ideology in the 20th century

4
Cosmopolitism

• Age of discovery and travel
• Buying (taking) from one place and selling it in
  another
• Bahaism
• Marco Polo
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Noam Chomsky
• Globalization before globalization?

5
Cosmos or the Globe

• Cosmopolitism Increased socio/economic
  interaction at class level
• OR
• Globalization Increased socio/economic
  interaction at identity level

6
Democracy

• Greek city-states
• The business of governing people
• At odds with business
• Is there one path of democracy?

7
Global VS. Local

• Cosmopolitism is
• extra-nationalist since it goes beyond the nation
• anti-nationalism since nationalism limits it
• Dependent on nations
• Jihad Vs. MacWorld or Jihad FOR MacWorld
• Uneven development leads to nationalism

8
Global VS. Local

• Anti-globalism is based on social nationalism
• Economic nationalism national interest
• Cosmopolitan identity challenges national
  identity
• Religion as a variation of nationalism

9
National Democracy

• Democracy operates best in a state while
  nationalism goes beyond the state
• Armenian State VS. The State of Armenia
• State of mind?

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes
first nationalism, when hate for people other
than your own comes first. Charles de Gaulle
10
National Democracy

• Nations VS states interest
• Us VS Them in the nation but not in the
  democratic state
• Strong sense of national identity promotes
  democracy
• State neutrality towards any affiliation

11
Cosmopolitan Democracy

• Global political community global citizenship
• Cosmopolitan democracy as an attempt to
  revitalize liberalism
• Cosmopolitism as an economic phenomenon

Capital is becoming more and more cosmopolitan
and hence cosmopolitism means belonging to all
parts of the world not restricted to any one
country or its inhabitants. John Stuart Mill,
Political Economy (1848)
12
Cosmopolitan Democracy

• Cosmopolitan democracy or cultural uniformity
• Information is power and it empowers individuals
• Cosmopolitism does not necessarily harbor
  democracy (Berlin in the 1930s, Moscow during
  USSR)

13
Cosmopolitan Nationalism

• Can we argue that there is such a thing?
• Is internationalism a more suitable term?
• Need for new institutions to absorb the
  changing world
• Trans-nationalism rather than cosmopolitism

14
Which Way Now?

• National (state) democracies before the global
  one
• Democracy as a reality not an ideal
• Dialogue or a clash of civilizations?
• Glocalization

15
Which Way Now?

• International globalization VS Western
  globalization
• Social justice on state and global level

We cannot turn globalization back. Our challenge
is to make globalization an instrument of
opportunity and inclusionnot fear and
insecurity. With all the forces making the world
smaller, it is time to change our way of
thinking, time to realize we live together in one
world, not two -- this poverty is in our
community wherever we live. It is our
responsibility. James Wolfensohn
16
Can We Get There?
The cosmopolitan society is in itself an
unreachable Idea, but it is not a constitutive
principle (which is expectant of peace amidst the
most vigorous actions and reactions of men). It
is only a regulative principle demanding that we
yield generously to the cosmopolitan society as
the destiny of the human race. Emannuel Kant,
Critique of Pure Reason