Global Governance Watch^©

Features

Introduction

Throughout the West, populist political parties are challenging the status quo. In response, political parties on both the Left and the Right claim that the populist challenges, many of which look to national histories and cultures for inspiration, are a “threat to democracy.” The established parties warn against “ethnocentrism,” which they claim fosters racism, stereotyping, discrimination, or xenophobia. Most likely, unless a credible alternative is offered, these political debates will continue for years.

One credible alternative is “personalist nationalism.” In his classic 1871 book, Democratic Vistas, America’s Walt Whitman espoused a personalist nationalism. He focused on the quality of Being, according to a person’s “own central idea and purpose.” He proposed a “healthy average personalism . . . the object of which should be to raise and supply through the States a copious race of superb American men and women, cheerful, religious, ahead of any yet known.”[1] For Whitman, it is only in the national context that a person can realize his or her true self: “The literature, songs, and esthetics of a country are of importance principally because they furnish the materials and suggestions of personality for the women and men of that country, and enforce them in a thousand effective ways.”[2]

Similarly, in a 1980 speech to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, known as UNESCO, Pope John Paul II explained how culture is the specific way of man’s existing and being. “Man always lives according to a culture which is specifically his, and which, in its turn, creates among men a tie which is also specifically theirs, determining the inter-human and social character of human existence.”[3]

Pope John Paul II urged UNESCO delegates:

"[W]ith all the means at your disposal, watch over the fundamental sovereignty that every Nation possesses by virtue of its own culture. Cherish it like the apple of your eye for the future of the great human family. Protect it! Do not allow this fundamental sovereignty to become the prey of some political or economic interest. Do not allow it to become a victim of totalitarian and imperialistic systems or hegemonies."[4]

This pillar of Global Governance Watch, provides resources in four areas critical to the success of personalist nationalism: Law and Liberty, Law and Religion, Law and Sovereignty, and Law and Economics.

[1] Walt Whitman, Democratic Vistas (1871), in Specimen Days, Democratic Vistas, and Other Prose, R. Shafer, ed. (Doubleday-Doran, New York) (1935), 294-295

[2] Id., 292.

[3] John Paul II, “Address to UNESCO,” June 2, 1980, https://inters.org/John-Paul-II-UNESCO-Culture

[4] Id.

Law & Sovereignty

Since the beginning of the New Millennium, international organizations, governments, transnational businesses, NGOs, and civil society organizations have promoted supranational corporatism, which interferes with national sovereignty and democratic evolution. This supranational corporatism is supported by a Matrix of Human Rights Networks, which includes advocacy networks; research networks; policy networks; standards-setting networks; interpretive networks; explanatory networks; implementation networks; assessment networks; enforcement networks; and funding networks.

Documents

Resources

Commentary

Law & Sovereignty

America Should Celebrate Its Heroes

August 22, 2025

The Trump administration is calling for a reappreciation of heroes from American history as a way of reigniting patriotism and correcting a fixation with victims.
Global Governance vs. Democratic Sovereignty

August 18, 2025

Both the climate and health security agendas rely on similar premises that seek to legitimize concerted global action to address climate and health related challenges, but the reality might be different than it is usually portrayed.
Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Addresses Threats to the United States from the Government of Brazil

August 01, 2025

The White House recently announced a series of sanctions on Brazil because of threats to America's national security, foreign policy, and economy.
Von der Leyen Demands Answers from Zelenskyy as New Law Threatens Ukraine’s EU Bid

July 24, 2025

Top EU leadership warned the Zelenskyy administration that a recently passed law may hamper the work of anti-corruption agencies and the accession of Ukraine to the EU as a result.
Niall Ferguson on the Current State of Global Affairs

June 24, 2025

In a recent interview Noema magazine, historian and columnist Niall Ferguson gives his thoughts on current global affairs and where the United States fits into this picture.
Putin's Gulag Archipelago

March 31, 2025

Politico's Casey Quackenbush takes a deep look into Russian "reeducation camps," where some say almost 20,000 Ukrainian children and teens have been forcibly sent from occupied Ukrainian territory.
America's "Judicial Coup"

March 21, 2025

In what El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele has called a "judicial coup," The Federalist cites specific examples supporting the claim of judicial overreach aimed at the Trump Administration's "America first" agenda.
The Judiciary and the Fight against Administrative Rule

March 21, 2025

John Daniel Davidson of The Federalist explores the complicity of the judiciary in supporting "administrative rule" in the United States.

Total Records: 8

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