The Struggle for Recognition

Identities are controlling systems which alter and shape our everyday behaviour. In Francis Fukuyama’s new book, identities are not biologically determined, but constructed out of complex political processes (p. 122). Importantly, identities are multiple – that is, we embody different identities according to the social/political contexts we find ourselves in. Fukuyama explores the role of identity in today’s political world. The demands of identity, he claims, govern world politics.

Fukuyama’s treatment of identity is not so much sociological as it is political. The clear aim of his book is to provide a useful framework for a wide range of current issues, ranging from Brexit to politicised Islam.

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Fukuyama begins by analysing the part played by a basic human need. Drawing on Plato’s ideas of the soul, Fukuyama argues that it is human nature to demand equal recognition. Fukuyama’s platonic term is thymos – the craving for ‘positive judgements about [one’s] worth or dignity’ (p. 18). Accordingly, thymos ‘is the seat of today’s identity politics’. Thymos is important because today’s liberal democracies recognise, or assert, that ‘everyone [is] inherently equal’ (p. 22) and the demand for recognition is widespread. However, thymos has spilled into the national sphere and transitioned into a power play of nations that demand recognition for their superiority. Today’s problems arise from dissonant political voices.

Fukuyama presents the reader with a short history of ideas to explain the creation of modern understandings of identity. He argues that identity began 500 years ago with the Lutheran Reformation. Martin Luther, an Augustinian friar, gave birth to the Western notion of individual identity. He focused on the individual believer rather than the prevailing ‘social structures’ of the Mediaeval Church (p. 27). But this idea developed with the thinking of later European philosophers. Jean Jacques Rousseau, for instance, emphasised the individual will against ‘outer society’ (p. 33). In the nineteenth-century, Friedrich Hegel viewed humans as free moral agents ‘who are simply rational machines seeking to maximise satisfaction of their desires' (p. 39). Today, Fukuyama says, dignity of the inner self rests on the idea of moral freedom (p. 40). Thus, modern identity politics which focus on the lived experience of individuals, such as feminism, and their demand for equal recognition grew out of a long history of twists and developments in how philosophers and critical thinkers viewed human beings (p. 110).

Fukuyama’s account gives prominence to the rise of nationalism since the late eighteenth-century. Nation building is, at heart, a divisive project that makes and breaks identities. It depends on ‘stories of peoplehood’ manufactured by all levels of society: including artists, elites, historians, and ordinary people (p. 142). National identities have depended on such inclusive (and exclusive) concepts like race, ethnicity, and shared language (pp 140-41). Nations created citizenship, a concept which became more important after the 1990s as immigration rose and put national identity into question. Citizenship, Fukuyama says, is a two-way street which endows ‘citizens with rights that are protected by the state, but it also enjoins duties on them, above all, the duty of loyalty to the country’s principles and laws’ (p. 148). Yet identity problematises citizenship in the contemporary world. For instance, one’s identity values may not necessarily match with the values of the state. In such a world, Fukuyama provides some solutions.

For liberal democracies to be more functional, we need to seek further common ground in the shape of shared principles and virtues. Multiple identities are an inevitable part of the societies we live in – therefore we need to practice empathy and dignity, and also agree upon a shared code of values and aspirations within the nations we live in. We need to look at the broader picture, promoting ‘creedal national identities built around the foundational ideas of modern liberal democracy’ (p. 166).

In the face of overwhelming immigration from the East into Europe, liberal democracies need to ensure new citizens feel committed to national values. Fukuyama proposes the ‘universal requirement for national service’ (p. 174). Such a view would stamp down on problems like, say, politicised Islam by overtly showing that liberal democracies refuse to tolerate radical actions contrary to their national values. As such

[i]f such service was correctly structured, it would force young people to work together with others from very different social classes, regions, races, and ethnicities, just as military service does today (p. 174).

Unquestionably, liberal democracies have the right to control their borders, hence they should have the same right to test new citizens on the acceptance of their nation's values systems (pp 174-75).

In a world filled with various identities, recognition drives political actions. The solution is to acknowledge identities and also refuse to give credit where it is not due. Identities are valuable if they contribute to a better world. Valorisation of collective identities thus depends on their value to everyone, not to a select few. Fukuyama’s rich understanding of current affairs offers a simple yet complex solution to today’s political decay. His advice is valuable and thought provoking. 

Source:

Identity: Contemporary Identity Politics and the Struggle for Recognition. By Francis Fukuyama. Profile Books: London, 2018. Pp xvii + 218 incl. 2 Tables. £16.99. 978-1-78125-9801.