Fukuzawa Yukichi's Liberal Nationalism

Bibliographic Data

ID3132423
AuthorsKei Hiruta (0000-0002-9668-4704, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume117
Issue3
Pages940-952
Publication date2023-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Political Science Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s000305542200106x
OpenAlexW4310859842
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited20

Discussing An Outline of a Theory of Civilization by the Japanese thinker Fukuzawa Yukichi, this essay shows how theorists of liberal nationalism might draw on "non-Western" theoretical resources to enrich their normative ideas and better appreciate their own tradition. I argue that Fukuzawa's work represents an alternative strand of liberal nationalism that complements its mainstream counterpart pioneered by David Miller, Yael Tamir, and others. More specifically, I argue that Fukuzawa's contributions help us reconsider three central claims made by his more mainstream peers: (1) cosmopolitanism poses the most important threat to liberal nationalism, (2) the strength of liberal nationalism lies in its perceptiveness about ordinary people's sense of national belonging, and (3) liberal nationalism emerged in mid-nineteenth-century Europe and spread elsewhere in the age of decolonization. In so doing, I show how the current "comparative turn" in political theory can benefit a specific debate-on liberal nationalism-within the discipline

Liberalism · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Japanese History and Culture · Law

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