3) European Union, postnationalism and constitutional patriotism lol, I first wrote this in French for another course, then translated it in Dutch for this article, and now I'm translating this into English!
On the other side, some competences are taken "from above" by the UE, and also other international organizations.
a) Postnationalism
In the years 1980, several right-wing German historians have tried to relativize the war crimes perpetrated by the German army during WWII. Their argument was that the fear of Blochevism was the cause of the rise of nazism, and that the massive massacres were an answer to Soviet atrocities.
Their goal was to reconciliate the Germans with their history, and to stimulate the re-birth of traditional nationalism in Germany.
Habermas totally disagreed with that. According to him, it was not acceptable to try and minimize war crimes. He says the national identity may not be based on an uncritical vision of history anymore.
Without forgetting history, people have to find valable, worthy elements of their own culture and base their political identity on values that are universally acceptable, as democracy and rechtstaat.
So, the cultural identity (one of the two elements of the nation-state) isn't based on history, culture of geography anymore, but rather on universal values. That is the separation of nation (cultural entity) and state (political entity).
b) Constitutional patriotism
Constitutional patriotism consists in the construction of the political identity based n universal concepts that are not linked with the national identity.
As there isn't any "traditional" European identity (there isn't a single language, a single culture, a single history), it is highly unprobable that the UE turns into a bigger-scale nation.
Instead, the UE identity is based on constitutional patriotism, that's to say the principles of universality, autonomy and responsibility, as democracy and rechstaat. Those principles are interpretated by each citizen with their own culture.
4) The speeches of King Albert II (this part should interrest you) a) Multicultural nationalism
A nation-state threatened by regionalism may try to calm these independantists by developping multicultural nationalism. This way, they try to re-legitimize the nation and allow the different groups to live together in harmony.
This concept is fundamental in the speeches of the King Albert II, as he constantly defines Belgium in the terms of its federated parts (he does not talk about "belgians" but rather about "flemish" and "walloons")
b) a tentative to relegitimize Belgium
As Belgium is unable to marginalize its subnational claims,
"the centre attempts to acquire a new legitimacy by accommodating the ethnic or regional claims and acting as the authoritative manager of the nationalist tensions within the state. This strategy not only has a structural component, which normally involves granting a form of autonomy to the sub-groups, but also a component of identity politics"
So, on the one hand, some autonomy is given to the regions and communities forming the country, but also the nation is re-defined as multicultural.
c) shortage of patriotism
While the King of Spain often uses patriotic and emotional expressions as "our fatherland" or "we the Spaniards", these expressions are nearly totally absent from the speeches of the King of Belgium.
Spanish people are called "our people", they have "their own culture" and hun "own national identity". Anthropomorphic expressions as "our life as a nation" or "our historical personnality" are also used. There is an obsession about the unity of Spain, and the autonomous regions are rarely mentionned.
On the contrary, Albert II nearly never uses words as "national", "nation" or even "Belgians". Concepts like "Belgian culture", "Belgian identity" are totally absent, and the country is sometimes called "multicultural".
Instead of talking about "Belgians", he alternatively uses the words "Flemish, French and German communities" (Flemish point of view) or "Flemings, Walloons and Brusselaren" (Walloon point of view), and thus implicitely recognizes the bi-polarity of the country.
While Belgium is never defined in ethocultural terms, the communities and regions (federated parts) have "their own identities", a concept that is never used for Belgium.
Just like the King of Spain, he uses anthropomorphic expressions, but this time for the federated parts, as he speaks about "the personality of each region and each communnity".
During the speech of the 21th July 1997, this self-negation has reached a high point when the King said "during our history, we have learnt to fight for the independance of our communes, provinces and regions", without even mentioning the fight for the independance of the country! d) another form of patriotism
According to the Belgian monarch, it is precizely the harmonious and peaceful coexistence of different cultural identities that makes our country unique and forms our identity as a nation.
He tries to create an "homo Belgicus", "
suggesting that a positive attitude towards other cultures is a characteristic trait of 'the' Belgian".He also talks about "'our natural openness, tolerance and hospitality towards others"
Conclusion
In this article, we've seen how Belgian identity has appeared. First, there was a period during which
vaderlandsliefde was created, thanks to the use of propaganda. An immagined community, the nation, first appeared in 1787 during the revolution against Jozef II. Then, the state was created during the revolution of 1830. Art was used to give a legitimity to this new political entity, by insisting on the union of the nation.
In both cases, the propaganda was made of an uncritical, romantic and selective vision of history. However, this nation-building was not as complete as the French one.
Then, the nation-state declined, because of the Flemish nation-building, who is against the multiculturalism that characterizes Belgium, and who has got similarities with the Belgian nation building (use of myths), and because of the UE, with its postnationalism and constitutional patriotism, who are opposed to the traditional nationalism.
The King tries to relegitimate the nation, by supporting multiculturalism, that remembers us the European multiculturalism and constitutional patriotism.
Bibliography
Sylvain Allemand, « Gouvernance. Le pouvoir partagé », Sciences humaines, 101, janv. 2000, p.12-18
Jan Blommaert, « Language and nationalism: comparing Flanders and Tanzania”, Nations and Nationalism 2 (2), 1996, 235-256
Christian Bodiaux, « Nationalisme et art en Belgique », delen 1 tot 3, La chronique de l’Université, UCL, Juni 2002 (
Nationalisme et Art en Belgique, par Monsieur Christian Bodiaux)
Jacobus Delwaide, « De natie als constructie : het geval van België”, Acta Politica, jrg. 31 (1), 1996, p.53-82
Hugues Dumont, syllabus de droit constitutionnel I, partie I, « L’état : notion et fondements », 2006-2007
Jean-Marc Ferry, « Qu’est-ce qu’une identité postnationale ? », Esprit, septembre 1990, p.80-90
Leonie Huddy en Nadia Khatib, “American Patriotism, National Identity, and Political Involvement”, American Journal of Political Science, 51 (1), Jan. 2007, p.63-77
Justine Lacroix, “Patriotisme constitutionnel et identité postnationale chez J.Habermas », in Rainer Rochliz (dir.), Habermas. L’usage public de la raison, Paris, P.U.F., coll. Débats philosophiques, 2002, p.133-160
Qiong Li en Marilynn Brewer, “What Does It Mean to Be an American? Patriotism, Nationalism, and American Identity After 9/11“, Political Psychology, 25 (5); October 2004, p.727-739
Bart Maddens en Kristine Vanden Berghe, “The identity politics of multicultural nationalism: A comparison between the regular public addresses of the Belgian and the Spanish monarchs (1990-2000)”, European Journal of Political Research, 42 (5), Augustus 2003, 601–627.
Michael Mann, The dark side of Democracy: explaining ethnic cleansing (Cambridge University Press), hfst 1-2.
Geert Van Den Bossche, “Political propaganda in the Brabant Revolution: Habsburg 'negligence' versus Belgian nation-building”, History of European ideas, 28 (3), 2002, p. 119-144