Abstract
There are important moral reasons for people to contribute to the democratic polities of which they are citizens and/or residents. But recognition of these reasons, even when supported by considerations of narrow self-interest and by certain habits and tastes, is insufficient to reliably motivate most people. Patriotic love promises to make up the motivational shortfall, but at a high price: love of one’s polity impairs one’s capacity to see that polity’s weaknesses and faults. This price might be worth paying if patriotic love were the only available solution to the civic motivation problem. But civic identification is an attractive alternative. Identification can be separated from affection, both conceptually and psychologically. And civic identification does not impair civic judgment as severely as patriotic love does. The best solution to the civic motivation problem is therefore to cultivate civic identification without, as far as possible, arousing patriotic love.
This chapter is a revised version of an article originally published in the Journal of Politics vol. 76, no. 1 (2014).
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MacMullen, I. (2018). Doing Without Love: Civic Motivation, Affection, and Identification. In: Sardoc, M. (eds) Handbook of Patriotism. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30534-9_53-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30534-9_53-1
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