Bulletin n. 3/2006 | ||
December 2006 | ||
Robertson Roland |
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The Increasing Monopolization of Identity by the State: The Case of the UK and the US | ||
in Nationalism and Ethnic Politics , Volume 12, Number 3-4, Autumn-Winter 2006 , 2006 , 373-387 | ||
The increasing monopolization by the nation-state of personal identity is a neglected feature of contemporary societies. First, there has occurred a somewhat puzzling conjunction between the activities of the state, on the one hand, and the flourishing of intellectual concern with the issue of identity, on the other. Second, it is a prominent feature of current processes of globalization that nation-states have been squeezed together, constraining them to announce their identities in order to highlight uniqueness. A central focus is upon the authoritarian, probably totalitarian, tendencies in the modern world, in spite of the present emphasis upon global democratization. | ||