Mazzini on the Globalization of Democratic Nationalism

• In Event: Theories of Sovereignty: Bodin, Hobbes, Mazzini, and Tocqueville

Abstract

Almost every significant episode in the history of popular sovereignty—from the Glorious Revolution in 1688, the North American war of independence, the French Revolution of 1789, the European Revolutions of 1848 to the disintegration of colonial empires in the twentieth century—has also been marked by the rise and spread of nationalism. It would seem that the rise and spread of nationalism is historically—and for some, also causally—tied to commitments to popular sovereignty: the latter gives rise to the former. How can we explain why upholding popular sovereignty should lead to a defense of national loyalties?

The goal of this contribution is to put into question some common assumptions about the equivalence of nationalism with popular sovereignty and the widely established parallels between the two. Specifically, while the process of democratization—to the extent that it liberates people and allows them to embrace national loyalties—may explain a link between popular sovereignty and nationalism, it is certainly insufficient, as the case of totalitarian nationalists would plainly contradict such a link.

Hardly any major thinker has contributed more to the distinction between national independence and popular sovereignty than the Italian Giuseppe Mazzini. Through his insistence on the notion of duties—toward oneself, the family, the nation, and humanity as a whole—he defends a specific form of nationalism. Only democratic nationalism, where national unity and popular sovereignty are inseparable, can serve as a means to human progress and emancipation. Mazzini cautions against abandoning the noble goal of popular sovereignty for the sake of obtaining mere national unification, without regard to the form of government that would be established. His main concern is to counter such a trend—especially pronounced during the Italian Risorgimento—by insisting on the need to believe in the nation conceived as a patriotic association of equals.

Mazzini presents a view of democracy as a popular form of government based on the sovereignty of the nations, where the nation is a political association of citizens represented by elected representatives. The terms popular sovereignty and democracy are virtually synonymous to him: they symbolize a political project against despotism and oppression, and their ultimate goal is the emancipation of the individual. Despite his emphasis on our patriotic duties toward the nation, Mazzini does not dismiss the political value of individual rights: they establish the foundation for the holder of sovereignty, the populace. In fact, as this contribution will argue, his strong belief in individual rights leads him to establish their moral and political primacy over that of popular sovereignty.

The significance of Mazzini in the historical development of popular sovereignty emerges from his belief that the moral progress achieved through the establishment of democratic governments consistent with popular sovereignty facilitates the emergence of a truly globalized democratic nationalism. Such a global reach would, in turn, lead to a more peaceful international order, where free democratic nations based on the principle of popular sovereignty would gradually establish not only a new political order, but a higher moral order.

Author

• Theodore Christov, George Washington University