ABSTRACT
One of the main puzzles in the study of ritual, symbolism and nationalism is establishing how we know that national rituals and symbols are having a significant effect, and not just being routinely observed, indifferently, out of habit. How do we know whether the Fourth of July is being experienced as an intensification of national identity or just a picnic? In their contributions to this volume, Jon Fox and Anthony Smith articulate opposing views on this question, Fox advocating a sceptical view from below and caution about assuming the deep effects of national rituals, and Smith arguing that we should take such rituals as evidence as of a discursive frame shared between elites and non-elites around the significance of the nation. My approach to this question is to worry less about who is sending and who is receiving the messages that rituals generate, and to ask rather: what do rituals do? How do they contribute to a social order that is national? I address this question about the process of ritual and performances by exploring the role and features of competition within liberal forms of society. This problem of assessing the impact of national rituals is even more acute when considering those of liberal societies, where states and governments, as a matter of principle, make milder demands on identity and solidarity, allowing considerable degrees of disengagement and dissent. My argument is that the ritualization of competition in liberal societies plays an important role in fostering national identity and cohesion, and, perhaps more importantly, in legitimating the general system of power relations and authority that undergird such societies.
