7.1: Political Identity and Identity Politics

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Describe how identity politics differs from political identity.

Introduction

What does it mean for people to consider themselves American, Chinese, Italian, Nigerian, Peruvian, or Russian? What makes a person identify as conservative or liberal? How does a person's gender, ethnic, religious, or class identity influence their political identity? How does politics influence a person's sense of gender, ethnic, religious, or class identity? These questions are complex, intertwined, and important. A person's identity influences their politics, and politics also influences a person's identity.

As a reminder from Chapter 6, political identity is how a person, or group of persons, think of themselves in relation to the politics and government of a state. Everything that makes up a person's sense of self is a component of their political identity, including factors like a person's ethnicity, race, religion, gender, class, ideology, nationality, and age. 

Understanding how individuals and groups see their political identity is critical to the analysis of the political system of any state. For example, identity can be the driving force behind a social or political movement calling for systemic change. Yet identity can also be the goal of a social or political movement; the movement may aim to gain acceptance of an identity or to redefine traditional identities (Bernstein, 2005). Attempts at change sometimes occur through the organizational lens of "identity politics."

Identity Politics

As Britannica defines, identity politics refers to "political or social activity by or on behalf of a racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender, or other group, usually undertaken with the goal of rectifying injustices suffered by group members because of differences or conflicts between their particular identity (or misconceptions of their particular identity) and the dominant identity (or identities) of a larger society." Identity politics may lead groups "to form exclusive political alliances, moving away from traditional broad-based party politics” (Lexico, n.d.), and by challenging dominant identities, identity-based groups may have "the goal of greater self-determination" (Heyes, 2020). While identity politics can provide a sense of belonging and purpose for a group of people, it also can lead to division and a sense of "us versus them" because it focuses the lens of specific identities and their differences. If the sense of belonging and membership in one group outweighs the sense of belonging and membership in a broader group, it can become more difficult for a society to address issues facing all people in the state.

We can better understand this difficulty when considering the difference between pluralism and hyperpluralism. A pluralist society is a society comprised of many identity groups that have different backgrounds, religions, and traditions, but where an overarching identity exists that includes everyone living within the state. A hyperpluralist society has many identity groups, but those groups have priorities that are so divergent that it is near impossible to find compromise and agreement on shared values with everyone living within the state.

Identity politics is complicated because people often identify with more than one group, such as in Israel. The creation of the state of Israel was done specifically to provide a homeland for Jewish people after World War II. As such, to identify as Israeli for many people is to also identify as Jewish. Those who live in Israel but are not Jewish fall into a different identity group with a different set of allegiances. This division creates a sense of exclusion and separation, making political unity and agreement more difficult.

The following sections will expand on the identities introduced in Chapter 6 to include national identity, religious identity, and class identity. It is important to remember that all of these identities can interact with each other in ways that affect politics differently. This is referred to as intersectionality, a concept that describes how the interconnectedness of various identities and categories can lead to the marginalization (or to the privilege) of particular people and/or groups.