Cosmopolitans and Parochials: Economy, Culture, and Political Conflict

• In Event: Who Supports—and Opposes—the Liberal International Order?

Abstract

Recent political conflict surrounding the orientation of individuals and political movements toward other peoples, other countries, and the global order provides an opportunity to investigate the sources of parochialism, a defensive ethnonationalism characteristic of populist, right-wing political movements and their followers, and cosmopolitanism, a stance supporting economic and cultural openness and international cooperation. Both political economy and culture have been marshalled as explanations for these opposing and politically potent stances that exert influence on politics and foreign policy. However, simple models based on international economic position (Open Economy Politics) fail to explain parochial attitudes or political support for Brexit or the candidacy of Donald Trump. One particular salient issue that divides parochials and cosmopolitans is directly linked to culture and identity: immigration. The correlates of cosmopolitanism connect those attitudes to a particular cultural infrastructure—a media-rich information environment, educational experience and institutions, and opportunities for transnational experience. In explaining both parochial and cosmopolitan attitudes, the disparate effects of globalization on local culture and politics are of central importance. The link from economy to political behavior and outcomes runs through the locational effects of globalization and the local cultures produced in those settings: globalized urban environments on the one hand or disadvantaged hinterlands that perceive themselves as left behind, on the other.

Author

• Miles Kahler, American University