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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.

Documents

Resources

Commentary

Personalist Nationalism

What is the Real "Threat to Democracy?"

May 05, 2025

Following an interview with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Shawn Fleetwood of The Federalist questions what constitutes the true "threat to democracy" in the U.S.
President Trump Establishes Religious Liberty Commission

May 02, 2025

On May 1, the White House announced the establishment of President Trump's Religious Liberty Commission, which is tasked with "safeguard[ing] and promot[ing] America's founding principle of religious freedom."
UK Trans Judge Plans to Challenge Recent Gender Ruling

May 02, 2025

Victoria McCloud, the United Kingdom's first trans judge, claims the recent gender ruling by the UK's Supreme Court violates her human rights, and plans to challenge the ruling in the European Court of Human Rights.
Canada to Decide if it will Hear Youth-Led Climate Case

May 02, 2025

Canada's top court must decide if it will hear a case which would clarify the constitutional requirements of governments to take on the issue of climate change.
The Supreme Court of the United States May Allow First Public Religious Charter School

May 02, 2025

The Supreme Court seemed poised to support the nation's first public religious charter school in arguments heard Wednesday.

Total Records: 106

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