On Constitutional Patriotism and Its Critics

Abstract

The world today is ruptured by regressing notions of collective identity, seemingly abandoning the hard-fought progress made during the last seven decades. This development hinges on people’s current inclination to relapse into pre-political identities of culture and nation. However, constitutional patriotism suggests that societies are capable of creating identificatory ties between their members without regard to culture, but through common allegiance to shared norms. In this paper, I introduce the reader to this abstractly-sounding concept, and subsequently juxtapose it with the communitarian objection that constitutional patriotism is ipso facto unable to create the ‘glue’ that holds citizens together. I highlight one example of this criticism and treat it as a stand-in for the general communitarian objection. Finally, I present some arguments countering this criticism, concluding that constitutional patriotism may be the only form of patriotism inclusive enough to cater to the fundamental needs of modern societies.