World War, Catalan and Que ́bec nationalism were conservative ideo-
logies; they are now social-democratic orientations.^11
Scholars on the left are usually more attentive to these various and
changing expressions of nationalism, and less likely than their con-
servative colleagues to paint all nationalisms as potentially malevo-
lent. For one thing, they are less concerned by the need to maintain
social order and more preoccupied by the possible injustice of any
existing order. In line with their more optimistic view of human nature,
they also tend to believe that conflicting identities “will work to check
each other’s excesses as they vie to win broad support in political
contests.”^12 These scholars, finally, are more sensitive to the distinct
and legitimate character of demands from the underdogs, be they small
nations or oppressed minorities.^13 Anthropologist Arjun Appadurai,
for instance, contrasts “predatory” and “emancipatory” nationalisms,
the former leading to the oppression and sometimes elimination of
minority identities, the latter sustaining popular struggles against
injustice.^14 Nationalism, in sum, varies in content, and it is normally
of the right or of the left.
As for the domestic politics of identity linked to multiculturalism
and new social movements, it is also very much a politics of the left
and right. The opposition between progressives and conservatives
on these questions is in fact so pronounced that many in the United
States have spoken of culture wars. When they call for change, women,
aboriginal peoples, blacks in the United States, ethnic and cultural
minorities everywhere, and all kinds of disadvantaged groups undoubt-
edly do so as movements of the left, against conservative forces
reluctant to modify the status quo.
The demands of identity groups are quintessential leftist demands
because they concern recognition and respect, so as to achieve equality.
(^11) Montserrat Guibernau,Nations without States: Political Communities in a
12 Global Age, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1999, p. 95.
13 Smith,Stories of Peoplehood, p. 159.
Dominique Schnapper,La communaute ́des citoyens, Paris, Gallimard, 1994,
14 pp. 30–31.
Arjun Appadurai, “The Grounds of the Nation-State: Identity, Violence and
Territory,” in Kjell Goldmann, Ulf Hannerz, and Charles Westin (eds.),
Nationalism and Internationalism in the Post-Cold War Era, London,
Routledge, 2000, pp. 129–34; a similar distinction is made in Stanley Hoffman,
“Nationalism and World Order,” in Goldmann, Hannerz and Westin (eds.),
Nationalism and Internationalism, pp. 204–6.
202 Left and Right in Global Politics