Patriotism

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Look up patriotism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Residents in the United States plant American Flags in the wake of disasters as a patriotic symbol of hope.

Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy. In a generalized sense applicable to all countries and peoples, patriotism is a devotion to one's country.

It is a related sentiment to nationalism.¹²³

The English term patriot is first attested in the Elizabethan era, via Middle French from Late Latin (6th century) patriota "countryman", ultimately from Greek πατριώτης (patriōtēs) "countryman", from πατρίς, "fatherland".⁴ The abstract noun patriotism appears in the early 18th century.⁵

History

The general notion of Civic virtue and group dedication has been attested in culture globally throughout the historical period.

Samuel Johnson famously referred to patriotism as "the last refuge of the scoundrel."

Enlightenment England and France

In classical 18th century patriotism, loyalty to the State was chiefly considered in contrast to loyalty to the Church, and it was argued that clerics should not be allowed to teach in public schools as their patrie was heaven, so that they could not inspire love of the homeland in their students. One of the most influential proponents of this classical notion of patriotism was Jean-Jacques Rousseau.¹

Conversely, in 1774, Samuel Johnson published The Patriot, a critique of what he viewed as false patriotism. On the evening of 7 April 1775, he made the famous statement, "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."⁶ This line was not, as widely believed, about patriotism in general, but the false use of the term "patriotism" by John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (the patriot-minister) and his supporters; Johnson opposed "self-professed Patriots" in general, but valued what he considered "true" patriotism.⁷

Philosophical issues

Patriotism may be strengthened by adherence to a national religion (a civil religion or even a theocracy). This is the opposite of the separation of church and state demanded by the Enlightenment thinkers who saw patriotism and faith as opposing forces. Others, such as Michael Billig or Jean Bethke Elshtain argue that the difference is difficult to discern and relies largely on the attitude of the labeller.⁸

Region-specific issues

• In the European Union, thinkers such as Habermas have advocated a Euro-patriotism, but patriotism in Europe is usually directed at the nation-state and often coincides with Euroscepticism.

Surveys

Several surveys have tried to measure patriotism for various reasons, such as the Correlates of War project which found some correlation between war propensity and patriotism. The results from different studies are time dependent. For example, patriotism in Germany before the Great War (WWI) ranked at or near the top, whereas today it ranks at or near the bottom of patriotism surveys.

The Patriotism Score tables here are from the World Values Survey and refer to the average answer for high income residents of a country to the question: "Are you proud to be [insert nationality]?" It ranges from 1 (not proud) to 4 (very proud).⁹. The higher value for Germany in 1990-92 likely reflects a temporary effect from reunification occurring then.

See also

References

Further reading

Please expand this article. Some suggested sources are given below. More information might be found in a section of the talk page. (January 2012)

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Patriotism

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Patriotism

Wikisource has the text of the 1921 Collier's Encyclopedia article Patriotic Societies.

• Charles Blattberg, From Pluralist to Patriotic Politics: Putting Practice First, Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-19-829688-6.
• Craig Calhoun, Is it Time to Be Postnational?, in Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Minority Rights, (eds.) Stephen May, Tariq Modood and Judith Squires. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. pp 231–256. Online at www.ssrc.org.
• Paul Gomberg, “Patriotism is Like Racism,” in Igor Primoratz, ed., Patriotism, Humanity Books, 2002, pp. 105–112. ISBN 1-57392-955-7.
• Jürgen Habermas, “Appendix II: Citizenship and National Identity,” in Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy, trans. William Rehg, MIT Press, 1996.
• Alasdair MacIntyre, 'Is Patriotism a Virtue?', in: R. Beiner (ed.), Theorizing Citizenship, 1995, State University of New York Press, pp. 209 – 228.
• Joshua Cohen and Martha C. Nussbaum, For Love of Country: Debating the Limits of Patriotism, Beacon Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8070-4313-3.
• George Orwell, “Notes on Nationalism,” in England Your England and Other Essays, Secker and Warburg, 1953.
• Igor Primoratz, ed., Patriotism, Humanity Books, 2002. ISBN 1-57392-955-7.
• Daniel Bar-Tal and Ervin Staub, Patriotism, Wadsworth Publishing, 1999. ISBN 0-8304-1410-X.
• Maurizio Viroli, For Love of Country: An Essay on Patriotism and Nationalism, Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-19-829358-5.