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The Acid Test? Competing Theses on the Nationality-Democracy Nexus and the Case of Switzerland

Dardanelli, Paolo, Stojanovi?, Nenad (2011) The Acid Test? Competing Theses on the Nationality-Democracy Nexus and the Case of Switzerland. Nations and Nationalism, 17 (2). pp. 357-376. ISSN 1354-5078. (doi:10.1111/j.1469-8129.2010.00453.x) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:24249)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://www.wiley.com/bw/journal.asp?ref=1354-5078&...

Abstract

The article deals with the connection between nationality and democracy and explores the role Switzerland plays in the scholarly debate on this question. It identifies three main theses – the liberal-nationalist, the liberal-multinationalist and the liberal-postnationalist one – and shows that each of them uses the Swiss case to claim empirical support. It then analyses the connections between nationality and democracy in Switzerland and demonstrates that the country is neither multinational nor postnational but is best characterised as a mononational state. These findings expose the fallacy of using Switzerland to claim support for either the multinational or the postnational thesis and call for a re-consideration of them. Additionally, they show that ‘civic nationalism’ and ‘civic republicanism’ can be conflated and that a predominantly civic nation is viable and sustainable and is not necessarily an ethnic nation in disguise. The Swiss case thus provides qualified empirical support for the liberal-nationalist thesis.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1111/j.1469-8129.2010.00453.x
Projects: Federalism, Nationality and Democracy in Switzerland
Subjects: J Political Science
J Political Science > JC Political theory
J Political Science > JN Political institutions and public administration (Europe)
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Politics and International Relations
Depositing User: Paolo Dardanelli
Date Deposited: 09 Apr 2010 14:38 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:02 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/24249 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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