Patriotism
Patriotism, love for or devotion to one’s country, as the dictionary definition has it, is a popular topic in the literature on political theory and philosophy. One reason for its popularity is probably the preponderance of conceptions that see it as moderate, in contrast to nationalism. As George Orwell wrote in his 1945 book Notes on Nationalism, “patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power.” The other contrast, the one between attachment to one’s country (patriotism) versus attachment to one’s people and its traditions (nationalism), has also played a role. Together, they are often taken as the defining features of patriotism. Of course, the actual use of the term in political discourse is much less regimented than the one standard in theoretical writings. In the United States, “patriotism” is often used for attitude(s) that would in the theoretical literature be described as “nationalistic”; see the newspaper debates on Donald Trump’s self-alleged patriotism. The contrast is strengthened by the need of theoreticians to have a concept-term that could be used for moderate attachment to one’s country. The other problem, right around the corner, so to speak, is that love for a country is not really just love of a piece of land; normally it involves attachment to the community of its inhabitants, and this introduces “nation” into the conception of patriotism. After a brief discussion of anthologies and general overviews of the area, this article focuses on particular topics. It starts with writings dedicated to the very concept of patriotism, and to the descriptive-explanatory issues—the central one being, “What is patriotism?” Next come normative issues, focusing on the morality of patriotism; it presents moderate and more radical defenses, and then passes to the relations of patriotism to its “relatives.” This section begins with relation between patriotism and cosmopolitanism, followed by the relation between patriotism and communitarianism, and ends with the one between patriotism and multiculturalism. The article concludes with two “hot topics,” first, populism, and second, migration.