John Schwarzmantel - Citizenship and Identity: Towards a New Republic

Citizenship and Identity offers an analysis of contemporary politics and of the scepticism and apathy that characterise the political life of modern democracies. Starting from an exploration of liberal-democracy and a critique of the fragmentation of contemporary politics, this book develops a republican perspective as an alternative framework for political institutions and civic participation.

Schwarzmantel applies ideas of republicanism to practical politics and to the realities of political life in a complex society. The book takes the debate on democratic reform forward by describing a new form of democratic society, focusing on ideas of citizenship, plural identities and decentralisation. It confronts the question of agency and the possibility of radical democracy in the conditions of liberal-democracy today.

This book presents a challenging critique of the flaws of contemporary democracy, along with a realistic and radical concept of institutional transformation and political agency. It will be essential reading for all those concerned with the future of democracy in the twenty-first century.

John Schwarzmantel is Senior Lecturer in Politics and Programme Director of the MA in Democratic Studies at the University of Leeds. He is co-editor of Democracy: A Reader, and author of The Age of Ideology, Socialism andthe Idea of the Nation, and The State in Contemporary Society.

First published 2003
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.

2003 John Schwarzmantel

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Schwarzmantel, J. J. (John J.), 1947
Citizenship and identity: towards a new republic / John Schwarzmantel.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Citizenship. 2. Identity (Psychology) 3. Democracy. I. Title.
JF801.S364 2002
323.6dc21 2002068290

ISBN 0-203-16449-0 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-25862-2 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-24413-7 (Print Edition)

This is a short book on a very large subject. It seeks to outline some of the problems faced by contemporary liberal-democratic societies in developing a sense of citizenship and political affiliation. The argument of the book develops an idea of republicanism as a critique of liberal-democracy. More positively, I attempt to indicate what implications republicanism would have if applied in practice. The idea of the new republic is meant to suggest in broad outline the nature of a new type of political system that might capture citizens allegiance and offer a shared political identity that bridges particular loyalties and group identification. These are indeed large topics, which form the subject of much writing in contemporary social science. This book is intended as a short contribution to the ongoing debate about the future of liberal-democracy and democratic institutions of citizenship.

I am very grateful to a number of friends and colleagues who have read previous versions of some or all of the manuscript, and who have provided encouragement and stimulus in discussing some of the issues. I am most grateful to Gideon Baker, David Beetham, Erika Harris, Marion Kozak, Max Silverman, Ernst and Maria Wangermann, as well as to Marie-Thrse Lorain for suggesting some very helpful French-language material, and to Valrie Broseta and Genevive Lorain for their encouragement. I am also very thankful for the editorial help and positive responses given by Craig Fowlie and Heidi Bagtazo and their colleagues at Routledge. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance of Lucy Robinson of Sage, who commissioned some very helpful readers reports on an initial version of the proposal and was herself most encouraging at a preliminary stage.

Versions of some sections of this book have been given as papers at the conferences of IPSA (International Political Science Association) in Quebec in August 2000, the British PSA (Political Science Association) at the London School of Economics in April 2000, and ISSEI (International Society for the Study of European Ideas) in Bergen in August 2000, as well as in talks at two Polish universities, Toru and Krakw. I am grateful to those who contributed to the discussion on those occasions, and to those who organised the relevant panels and extended their hospitality and contributed their ideas. I also acknowledge financial help received from my department in making some of these visits possible, and in providing me with a semester of sabbatical leave to work on this book.

John Schwarzmantel
Leeds, April 2002

The argument of this book is that there is an urgent need for the transformation of liberal-democracy, and that some version of republican theory provides the guiding concepts for a different political system here called the new republic. This distinct form of democracy would be characterised by institutions different in important ways from those which feature in contemporary liberal-democracies. It is through such institutional renewal and transformation, I maintain, that a stronger sense of citizenship and the public good can be developed for the members of a democratic society. Such a more forceful sense of citizenship is necessary to prevent the deeper fragmentation of contemporary democracy. By fragmentation is understood here a process which is already under way, in which particular interests and identities come to preoccupy citizens, and block out any wider political consciousness which links people together. The version of republican politics argued for here does not deny or seek to eradicate private interests and the significance of diverse identities. It is the purpose of this book to defend a more vigorous concept of the political dimension which builds on and extends citizens perceptions of their particular concerns. These are the central ideas which this book seeks to maintain.