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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

Hayek and the Federal Funding of Universities

April 28, 2025

John O. McGinnis, Constituional Law Professor at Northwestern University, draws parallels between Hayek's theories and the current debate around federal funding at universities.
Upcoming at the Supreme Court

April 28, 2025

The Federalist looks ahead to some of the biggest cases on the U.S. Supreme Court's docket this summer.
U.S. State Department to be Restructured

April 25, 2025

In an effort to "reduce waste and streamline the department," Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced restructuring plans of the State Department, which would include moving the religious freedom office to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor ("DRL").
Does Exposure to LGBTQ Books Violate Religious Freedom?

April 24, 2025

The United States Supreme Court is considering whether requiring exposure to LGBTQ materials violates the religious liberty of parents.
U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Religious Liberty Case

April 22, 2025

The United States Supreme Court will hear arguments on Tuesday in Mahamoud v. Taylor, which challenges the state of Maryland's refusal to allow parents to exempt their children from lessons that include "explicit LBGT content".

Total Records: 44

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