The anatomy of controversy, from Charlottesville to Rome

Modern Italy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (02) ◽  
pp. 123-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Arthurs
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Identity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Memory Politics ◽  
Recent Memory ◽  
Longue Duree ◽  
Longue Durée

This article compares two recent memory controversies in the United States and Italy – the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia and theLegge Fiano,the abortive ban on Fascist propaganda proposed by Emanuele Fiano and the Partito Democratico – in order to identify a common set of challenges now confronting liberal democracies on both sides of the Atlantic. While acknowledging thelongue duréeof memory politics surrounding the Confederacy and Fascism respectively, the article argues that disputes over their monuments and symbols must also be situated in terms of contemporary debates over national identity, race, populism, citizenship and speech.

Conclusion

The Border ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 208-226
Author(s):  
Martin A. Schain
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
Electoral Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Border Control ◽  
The West ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Southern Border

This concluding chapter focuses on both what is meant by the idea that the border is back, and how this has come about. The new focus on the border has evolved in a context of important, and seemingly successful, efforts of international cooperation toward the removal of barriers to trade and the movement of people on both sides of the Atlantic. The shift toward harder controls at the border has been driven by the emergence of new radical right movements and political parties on both sides of the Atlantic. Borders are closing not because of economic protectionism, but as a result of conflicting commitments of liberal democracies: rights and treaty-based immigration is running up against growing support for a reinforcement of national identity and border control. Although there has consistently been significant opposition to immigration in the West, the increase in rights-based immigration on the borders of Europe and on the southern border of the United States has given this opposition political traction. In the context of electoral politics, political parties have driven border issues as political priorities. Identity has trumped trade as a priority issue.

Interpretative theories as roadmaps to constitutional identity: The case of the United States

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
OR BASSOK
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Identity ◽  
American Constitution ◽  
Patient Protection ◽  
American National Identity ◽  
Constitutional Identity

AbstractAs long as the American Constitution serves as the focal point of American identity, many constitutional interpretative theories also serve as roadmaps to various visions of American constitutional identity. Using the debate over the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, I expose the identity dimension of various interpretative theories and analyse the differences between the roadmaps offered by them. I argue that according to each of these roadmaps, courts’ authority to review legislation is required in order to protect a certain vision of American constitutional identity even at the price of thwarting Americans’ freedom to pursue their current desires. The conventional framing of interpretative theories as merely techniques to decipher the constitutional text or justifications for the Supreme Court’s countermajoritarian authority to review legislation and the disregard of their identity function is perplexing in view of the centrality of the Constitution to American national identity. I argue that this conventional framing is a result of the current understanding of American constitutional identity in terms of neutrality toward the question of the good. This reading of the Constitution as lacking any form of ideology at its core makes majority preferences the best take of current American identity, leaving constitutional theorists with the mission to justify the Court’s authority to diverge from majority preferences.

The transformation of tequila: From hangover to highbrow

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Sarita Gaytán
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Identity ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Class ◽  
Song Lyrics

This article examines the evolution of tequila’s reputation – from lowbrow to high class – in Mexico and the United States. Analyzing the content of novels, magazines, newspapers, ads, and song lyrics, it argues that the current cachet associated with tequila was influenced by a range of historical, political, and economic circumstances within and between Mexico and the United States. Specifically, transformations took place in three key phases including tequila’s: (1) increasing ties to national identity in Mexico; (2) changing perception – moving from feared to fun – in the United States; and (3) gaining of state-backed support and legislative protection. In explaining the shifting patterns of prestige, the roles of transnational circuits of consumption and production merit closer analysis in understanding the relations that shape cultural fields.

Foreign Election Interference and Open-Source Anarchy

2021 ◽  
pp. 293-314
Author(s):  
David P. Fidler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Open Source ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Century ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Material Power ◽  
International Anarchy

Russian meddling in the 2016 elections in the United States sparked debates in liberal democracies about how to counter foreign election interference. These debates reveal the seriousness of the threat and the complexity of responses to it, including how to protect voting systems and what actions social media companies should take against disinformation. This chapter argues that international anarchy changes in ways that leading theories of international relations do not capture. The chapter develops the concept of “open-source anarchy” to understand how anarchy changed after the Cold War and to analyze why foreign election interference has gained prominence during the second decade of the twenty-first century. In open-source anarchy, changes in the structure of material power, technologies, and ideas permit less powerful states and nonstate actors to affect more directly and significantly how anarchy functions. The concept helps explain how Russia exploited the internet and social media to interfere in elections in the United States—the world’s leading democracy, foremost source of technological innovation, and most powerful country. Open-source anarchy also illuminates the struggles that the United States and other democracies have experienced in preventing, protecting against, and responding to foreign election interference.

The Lucrative Business of the Cyrus Cylinder

2020 ◽  
pp. 299-301
Author(s):  
Kamyar Abdi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
International Business ◽  
Jewish People ◽  
British Museum ◽  
The United States

This chapter focuses on the Cylinder of Cyrus the Great (c. 600–530 BCE) of Persia. More commonly known as the “Cyrus Cylinder,” this archaeological find housed in the British Museum is about 22 centimeters long, made of baked clay, and covered in cuneiform writing that has been noted by biblical scholars to corroborate the story of Cyrus’s liberation of the Jewish people from Babylonian captivity. Since the mid-twentieth century, it has been (mis/ab)used as a political tool to promote Iranian national identity. With its exhibition in Iran in 2010 and in the United States in 2013, it has also become a commodified icon in a lucrative international business.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document