ABSTRACT
The chapter opens by defining identities and how identities shape political behavior. It describes how politicians manipulate group identities to increase their political power and achieve political objectives. America’s multicultural tradition permits students greater latitude in expressing their identities than in France, but even in the United States, there have been incidents in which Muslim girls who wore headscarves have been sent home, including one that occurred at the Benjamin Franklin Academy in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 2003. Common identities foster group formation, while those with other identities remain “outsiders” or “aliens”. Recent technologies threaten states’ ability to promote a unifying national tradition that differentiates “the reader” from “them” and anchors citizens’ loyalties. Nationalism assumes the world is divided into distinctive “peoples.” These peoples form nations whose members are loyal to one another and united in their desire to protect the nation and maintain its distinctiveness.
