Search

The recent referendum on Scottish independence was characterised by a fail­ing on behalf of the Better Together campaign to articulate a positive vision and concep­tion of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In particular, any per­suasive notion of Britishness was notable by its absence. This paper attempts to shed light on the question of nationalism, in the British context in particular, by turning to the history of political thought, and the philosophical reflections of two British liberals, Rich­ard Price and John Stuart mill. Their ideas are set out with reference to the civic/ethnic distinction and two main claims are presented. The first is that despite Price’s emphasis on a civic patriotism and mill’s embracing of many elements of ethnic nationalism, both their accounts ultimately cohere around the centrality of a “national history”. empirical doubts about the sustainability of the civic/ethnic divide are here reflected in philosophi­cal discussions of nationalism. The second claim is that Price and mill’s account draw at­tention to the historical difficulty of constructing a persuasive British nationality whilst simultaneously suggesting the only obvious prospect for its succesful reconfiguration, namely the articulation of a genuinely British national history., Nedavni referendum za škotsku nezavisnost pokazao je određeni neuspjeh kampanje Bolje zajedno da formulira pozitivnu viziju i koncepciju Ujedinjenog Kraljevstva Velike Britanije i Sjeverne Irske. Ono što je nedostajalo je bila jasna ideja britanskog. Ovaj članak pokušava rasvijetliti fenomen nacionalizma, s naglaskom na britanski kontekst, oslanjajući se na povijest političke misli i filozofska promišljanja dvaju britanskih liberala, Richarda Pricea i Johna Stuarta Milla. Njihove ideje razmatraju se u odnosu na razlikova­nje između građanskog i etničkog. Autor brani dvije tvrdnje. Prva je da neovisno o Price­vom naglasku na građanski patriotizam i millovo zagovaranje mnogih elemenata etnič­kog nacionalizma, oba pristupa stavljaju u fokus ideju 'nacionalne povijesti'. Empirijske sumnje oko održivosti građanske/etničke podjele ovdje se propituju kroz filozofsku dis­kusiju o nacionalizmu. Druga tvrdnja je da Price i mill upozoravaju na povijesno poteš­koće u konstruiranju uvjerljivog koncepta britanske nacionalnosti, istovremeno sugerira­jući jedinu očitu mogućnost njegovog uspješnog redefiniranja kroz artikulaciju britanske nacionalne povijesti.