The Patriotism of Despair

Chapter 16 uses ethnographic data to explore the development of new identities rooted in the collective trauma experienced during transition in postsocialist countries. This chapter shows how the void left by the sudden disappearance of Soviet-era propaganda and positive imagery was replaced by postmodern neoliberal individualism. It shows how nationalist and nativist movements swept in to fill this ideological vacuum and rooted themselves in a shared victim identity, pointing to local disillusionment with market democracy as a major legitimating factor for authoritarian movements. Many who searched for a postsocialist identity turned to orthodox, sometimes radical, religious groups or to ethno-nationalist political movements.

The Western Liberal Constitution’s Internationalized Making

This chapter chronologically traces the Western liberal Constitution’s internationalization from 1919-1960 to establish UNCA’s birth in 1949, rejection in 1960 and revival in 1960. This chapter comprises three sections. Section 1 traces a rise in the Constitution’s internationalization from 1919 to 1960. Section two covers the United Nations’ role from 1949-1952 in assisting Libya, a former Italian colony, adopt the Constitution and emerge independent. UNCA was rejected in 1960 because the right to self-determination morphed into an absolute right for all colonies, whereby they henceforth enjoyed a right to sculpt constitutions of their choice. At this juncture, UNCA serves a limited purpose: to implement decolonization. Section 3 outlines former UN Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjold’s economic philosophy and his efforts at reviving united nations constitutional assistance to ensure Congo morphs into a market democracy. A discussion of the UN’s constitutional assistance from 1960-64 reveals that its use had nothing to do with perceived local incapacities for governance and how it spawned and guided UN or International territorial administration (e.g., law-making) there.

Culture as Instrument

This chapter explains why an adequate understanding of culture requires that we consider how culture works in like fashion across all societies. There is more to culture than the peculiarities of the societies we live in, and it is by understanding what gives culture its power that we can better understand how to ensure that the kind of culture that can support mass flourishing can be sustained. A hallmark of most cultures is childhood instruction. This is crucial for encoding morally desirable behavior through tastes, but this mechanism can also produce the cultural lock-in of beliefs and practices that are inimical to the emergence of a free market democracy and mass flourishing.