Book Reviews

Alexander A. Schuessler, A Logic of Expressive Choice
Donald L. Horowitz, The Deadly Ethnic Riot
Avery Goldstein, Deterrence and Security in the 21st Century: China, Britain and France, and the Enduring Legacy of the Nuclear Revolution
Daniel W. Shuman and Alexander McCall Smith, Justice and the Prosecution of Old Crimes: Balancing Legal, Psychological, and Moral Concerns
Paul M. Sniderman, Pierangelo Peri, Rui J. P. De Figueiredo Jr., and Thomas Piazza, The Outsider: Prejudice and Politics in Italy
Janie Leatherman, William DeMars, Patrick Gaffney, and Raimo Vayrynen, Breaking Cycles of Violence: Confict Prevention in Intrastate Crises     

National Attachment and Patriotism in a European Nation: A British Study

This study explores identification with one's national group using two distinct but interrelated concepts: identity content and relational orientation. Theoretical distinctions were drawn between two forms of identity content: traditional-cultural and civic, and between two forms of relational orientation: blind and constructive. The multidimensionality of both identity content and relational orientation and the relationships amongst these components were examined in a British sample: positive relationships were hypothesized between blind orientation and traditional-cultural content and between constructive orientation and civic content. Principal components analyses confirmed the hypothesized factor structures, and the resulting scales were highly reliable. Relationships amongst the resulting factors were explored using regression analyses. The overall results indicate support for the orthogonality of both the two orientation dimensions and the two content dimensions. Moreover, the hypothesized relationships between forms of orientation and content were largely supported. In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of looking at the relationship between identity content and relational orientation. The implications of these observations for theory and research are discussed with reference to using categories to "group" participants in research, citizenship education, and more general attitudes towards social change.     

Democratic Patriotism and Multicultural Education

Debate about multicultural education in the USAhas been marked by anxieties about thestability of a nation that is both increasinglyculturally diverse and increasingly resistantto coercive assimilative practices. Apolitically and morally persuasivemulticulturalism must seek to dispel ratherthan evade these anxieties. One educationalvenue in which they must be addressed ishistory teaching. The possibility ofcultivating democratic patriotism in theteaching of a genuinely multicultural Americanhistory is discussed.     

Patriotism and the impact on perceived threat and immigration attitudes

Patriotism and threat have been shown to predict immigration attitudes. We suggest that patriotism is influential in producing threat, and such threat drives anti-immigration attitudes, but this relationship is different for Whites and Latinos. All participants completed a patriotism scale (blind and constructive patriotism measures), a threat scale (realistic and symbolic threat), and anti-immigration attitude scale. Latinos showed lower blind patriotism, realistic threat, symbolic threat, and anti-immigration attitudes compared to Whites, with no differences in constructive patriotism. Threat partially mediated the relationship between blind patriotism and anti-immigration attitudes for Whites and fully mediated the relationship for Latinos. Threat partially mediated the relationship for cultural patriotism and anti-immigration attitude for Whites but not for Latinos. Implications for public policy and education concerning immigrant attitudes are discussed.     

Children Cover Your Eyes: Masculine Honor and the Role of Blind Patriotism in Teaching National Allegiance to Posterity

Identifying strongly with the nation could entail a willingness to criticize the country or a refusal to do so. The studies reported here examine the extent to which masculine honor inspires the latter and, in turn, motivates teaching allegiance to youth in a manner that could discourage national criticism. Whereas Study 1 provides an initial test of this idea by evaluating blind patriotism's ability to mediate the link between honor endorsement and general support for allegiance education (e.g., singing the National Anthem at school functions), Studies 2 and 3 do so more decisively by focusing on more severe outcomes such as punishing students who refuse to pledge loyalty to the United States. The predicted pattern of mediation occurred in every case, even when honor endorsers were experimentally induced to feel anger toward the country (Study 3). Explanations for this latter finding are discussed and include the role of identity fusion in honor endorsers’ commitment to the nation and the potential for real and enduring governmental threats to weaken or eliminate the pattern of mediation observed.     

Patriotism in Early China

This paper considers the difference between the values attached to love of country in early China and in today’s world, through exploration of a series of concept clusters centered on “loyalty,” “glory,” “honor,” and “identity.” Using a wide array of sources, including legends about exemplary figures in antiquity, it assesses the extent to which patriotism or something like patriotism was a normative value in the distant past. It also outlines the appropriate limits of patriotism which the early thinkers insisted upon, thinking them useful guidelines for today.     

Nationalism,Patriotism, and Support for the European Union

Does attachment to a nation enhance or dampen support for the European Union (EU)? Using the 2003 and 2013 ISSP national-identity modules, we isolate and provide multi-item measures of two distinct types of national attachment—nationalism and patriotism. We find that they are positively related yet have divergent effects. We validate the measures showing that nationalism increases, and patriotism decreases, support for nationalistic policies (anti-immigration and protectionism) as expected. We then test the effects of nationalism and patriotism on EU attitudes and find that nationalism increases, and patriotism decreases, opposition to the EU. The presence of a neo-nationalist political party enhanced the effects of nationalism on opposition to the EU, underscoring the importance of political rhetoric in shaping nationalistic EU opposition. In further support of the rhetoric hypothesis, the most-educated nationalists are most likely to oppose the EU in countries with a neo-nationalist political party and vote for such parties when present.     

Patriotism,Orthodox religion and education: empirical findings from contemporary Russia

In recent years, an objective of some Russian Orthodox activists and Church leaders has been the introduction of religious education in state schools which was established in Russia in 2012, following a 2009 Presidential Directive. Today, however, there are two different strands in religious education. On the one hand, there is the state’s emphasis on the bonds between Orthodox Christianity and Russian history, culture and identity. Based on this so-called culturological understanding of religion, the Russian state hopes to use Orthodoxy in nation- and institution-building and in the strengthening of patriotism. On the other hand, while the culturological language is also used in the Church’s official discourse, in practice there are many attempts by Orthodox clergymen and activists to use religious education for the purposes of evangelisation.     

Patriotism, Nationalism, and Internationalism Among Japanese Citizens: An Etic–Emic Approach

The present study examined national attitudes among Japanese citizens. A National Identity Scale was developed and administered to a non–student sample (n = 385) and an undergraduate sample (n = 586) in a metropolitan area of Japan. The results revealed aspects that are common (i.e., etic) to different nationalities and those that are indigenous (i.e., emic) to Japanese people. Factor analyses identified etic factors of patriotism (i.e., love of the homeland), nationalism (belief in superiority over other nations), and internationalism (preference for international cooperation and unity). Attachment to the ingroup and ethnocentrism were thus shown to be separate dimensions. Distinct from these factors, commitment to national heritage emerged as an emic component of Japanese national identity. The discriminant validity of these factors was demonstrated in differential relationships with other variables, such as ideological beliefs and amount of knowledge. Commitment to national heritage was associated with conservatism, whereas internationalism was related to liberal ideology, a high level of media exposure, and knowledge of international affairs. Implications for the study of intergroup and international relations are discussed.     

Poverty, Patriotism, and National Covenant: Jonathan Edwards and Public Life

In this essay I address three ways in which Edwards can inform Christian understanding of public life. First I show how Edwards provides both philosophical and theological rationales for social engagement and thereby resists the separation of religion from public life, and use his consideration of poverty as an illustration. Part II examines Edwards's dialectical treatment of patriotism, demonstrating both its importance to the Christian life and its susceptibility to deceptive accommodation to culture. Finally, in Part III I discuss Edwards's use of "national covenant," which despite its temptation to chauvinism Edwards used to undermine national pride. In the conclusion I assess what we can use from Edwards for contemporary Christian understandings of public life.     

Patriotism and Pride beyond Richard Rorty and Martha Nussbaum

Old and new complicities of collective political attachment in violence give patriotism a bad name. Simplistic positions often view collective attachment as either entirely bad or as sanitizable merely by adding to patriotism the adjective ‘critical’. Patriotic affectivity, as illustrated with the political emotion of pride, stands out within philosophical debates. This article argues that, to think about patriotism differently, we need to look more closely at ‘optics’ of patriotism and pride that have escaped debate although they are crucial for avoiding older pitfalls. To this end, I revisit Richard Rorty’s and Martha Nussbaum’s positions on pride by introducing more challenging examples of what being/feeling patriotic should mean. I reframe patriotism so that an ‘outward’ ‘optic’ acts as a strong corrective of the usual inward preoccupation with domestic issues within the polity and the state.     

Cueing Patriotism,Prejudice, and Partisanship in the Age of Obama: Experimental Tests of U.S. Flag Imagery Effects in Presidential Elections

The American flag is a powerful symbol that campaigns seek to harness for electoral gain. But the flag's benefits may be more elusive than they appear. We begin by presenting content analysis of the flag's prevalence in 2012 U.S. presidential campaign ads, which suggests both candidates saw flags as advantageous. Then, in two experiments set during the 2012 campaign and a later study with prospective 2016 candidates, we find flag exposure provides modest but consistent benefits for Republican candidates among voters high in symbolic patriotism, racial prejudice, and Republican identification. These effects arise regardless of which candidate appears with the flag. Taken together, our results speak to both the power and limitations of the American flag in electioneering. Beyond practical implications for campaigns, these studies emphasize the heterogeneity of citizens’ reactions to visual political symbols and highlight potent links between symbolic attitudes and a nation's flag.     

The formation and development of individual and ethnic identity: insights from psychiatry and psychoanalytic theory

This paper describes the concept of identity formation, examining the historical development of identity, particularly ethnic identity. The author distinguishes the normative developmental achievement of self and group identity with pathological identity diffusion due to an earlier attachment disorder. The clinical case of a young male’s experience of his Persian family’s immigration to a new host country details the challenges encountered in ethnic identity formation and its interference in consolidating this ongoing process. The complicated task of self identity formation during this phase of development in the face of parental unresolved and ambivalent attitudes toward their own sense of threatened self and group identity diffusion is discussed. Parental intrapsychic conflict combined with environmental conflict such as racism, prejudice, and more recent paranoia toward Middle Eastern immigrant families interferes further with the normal identity formation process. The paper elaborates the compromised bicultural identity of a youngster who struggles through his developmental life phases.Mali A. Mann, M. D., is Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA and Faculty Member, San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute.     

Males Prefer Younger Females: Age Preference Among Online Daters in the Dominican Republic

Previous research has found that online daters show a trend in age preference, with males seeking females younger than themselves and females seeking males older than themselves. These studies covered a wide geographic area but not in the Caribbean. To contribute to the literature, we examine online daters’ age preferences in the Dominican Republic. Our statistical analyses show that similar gendered age preferences exist among Dominican online daters even after controlling for their ages. On average, Dominican males prefer younger partners and the reverse is true for females. While there might be cultural differences in different countries affecting the extent and degree of age preferences, the consistent difference by sex underscores the challenges faced by older females in the online dating market.     

Invisible friends across four countries: Kenya,Malawi, Nepal and the Dominican Republic

Cross‐cultural comparisons of the prevalence of invisible/imaginary companions are difficult due to the use of various methods of data gathering and the lack of sampling in developing countries. The present study took place among 443 children (3–8‐year‐olds) in four different countries (Kenya, Malawi, Nepal and the Dominican Republic) employing the same interview method. Among all the children 21% affirmed that they had invisible/imaginary companions at the time of the interview. But the rates between countries varied significantly from a low of 5% in Nepal to a high of 34% in the Dominican Republic. The results suggest that the potential for the phenomenon transcends cultural particularity even as culture plays an important role for supporting or discouraging invisible/imaginary companions.     

Identity and oppression: differential responses to an in-between status

Oppression operates at various levels, with varying degrees of negativity, and groups respond in markedly different ways. In this paper, the in-between status of the colored South African group is used to illustrate issues of identity and oppression under the Apartheid system—and differing ways in which oppression was experienced and used. The colored group had many social advantages over Blacks, but were also used to oppress that group. Habituation, accommodation, and relative advantage were identified as dynamics within the broader context of power and privilege that contributed to cultural and psychological marginality and status ambivalence of the coloreds. These processes must be understood within the historical, social, and political context of the community. What is evident from the data is that groups and individuals can take up various positions along a continuum of oppressor—oppressed, depending upon the contexts, time, and social and legal relationships involved in their interactions.     

Determinants of National Identity in East and West Germany: An Empirical Comparison of Theories on the Significance of Authoritarianism, Anomie, and General Self-Esteem

This paper presents an integrated theoretical model of national identity, nationalism, and patriotism that takes into account some action-theoretical deliberations, the theories of authoritarianism and anomie, and the social identity approach. The model was tested empirically for citizens of the former East and West Germany with the use of a structural equations model. Most of the hypotheses were supported: Authoritarianism has a significant potential to explain national identity and nationalism. Anomie and general self-esteem are of subordinate relevance. Generally, East and West Germans identify themselves with Germany for the same reasons. However, these results suggest a more differentiated analysis of the effects of anomie and general self-esteem in explaining national identity.     

My Country,Right or Wrong: Education,Accumulated Democratic Experience,and Political Socialization of Blind Patriotism

Although educational attainment has been identified as a significant factor that reduces uncritical positive attachment to one's country (i.e., blind patriotism), little is known about whether the remedial effect of education on uncritical patriotism is universal across countries with different histories of democratic rule. This article examines the extent to which democracy stock (the accumulated amount of democratic traditions, legacies, and experiences consolidated over time) conditions the relationship between education and blind patriotism. Using international data from 33 countries, the article shows that the remedial effect of education is more pronounced in countries with larger stocks of democracy than in countries with higher levels of democracy (current or recent). The results imply that the political socialization of critical patriotism is a cumulative process in which citizens internalize their potentially democratic competencies (e.g., knowledge, skills, and dispositions) and develop a sense of national attachment based on critical reflection on government policy and practice (i.e., critical loyalty) over an extended period of time.