Crooked Timber or Bent Twig? Isaiah Berlin's Nationalism

Bibliographic Data

ID6345798
AuthorsDavid Miller (0000-0002-3868-5792, Nuffield College, University of Oxford, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume53
Issue1
Pages100-123
Publication date2005-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3217 • E-ISSN: 1467-9248
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9248.2005.00519.x
OpenAlexW1607246735
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited23

Isaiah Berlin is often regarded as one of the sources of contemporary liberal nationalism. Yet his own attitude to nationalism, and its relation to his liberalism, remains unexplored. He gave conflicting definitions of nationalism in different places, and although he frequently contrasts more benign with more malign forms of nationalism, the terms in which he draws the contrast also vary. In Berlin's most explicit account, nationalist doctrine is presented as political, unitary, morally unrestricted and particularist, but these four dimensions are separate, and on each of them alternative nationalist positions are available. Berlin's account of the sources of nationalism is also ambiguous: his analysis of the Jewish condition in European societies and his support for Zionism contrasts with his diagnosis of the origins of German nationalism. Comparing Berlin with later liberal nationalists, we see that his liberalism prevented him from presenting a normative political theory in which liberal and nationalist commitments were successfully combined. Such a theory can indeed be developed, but the challenge that emerges from Berlin's writing is to explain how real-world nationalism can be kept within liberal limits

Classical liberalism · Doctrine · Liberalism · Nationalism · Normative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Unitary state · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious Education and Schools · Religious studies

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