7.1: What is Political Identity?

Learning Objectives

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

• Define Political Identity
• Describe how Identity Politics is Different from Political Identity
• Explain how Political Identity is important in the study of comparative politics

Introduction

What does it mean to think of yourself as 'American' or 'Peruvian'? What makes someone identify as 'conservative' or 'progressive'? How does one’s gender, ethnic, religious, or class identity influence their political identity? How does politics influence our sense of our gender, ethnic, religious and class identity? These questions are complex, intertwined and important. Our sense of self [our identity] influences our politics and politics influences our sense of self [our identity].

What Are the Components of Political Identity?

As defined in Chapter Six, political identity is how a person or group of persons think of themselves in relation to the politics and government of a country. Everything that makes up our sense of self are components of our political identity. This includes our ethnicity, religion, gender, class, ideology, nationality and even our age and generation.

Why Is Political Identity Important in Studying Comparative Politics?

Understanding how individuals and groups see their own identity as it relates to politics and the state [government] is critical to the analysis of the political culture and political system of any country. In the United States, for example, there is a tendency to think of White evangelicals as likely to affiliate with the Republican Party and for Persons of Color to be more likely to affiliate with the Democratic Party. People with different political identities might also have different ideas of what it means to be 'patriotic' or even 'American'. Identity can be the driving force behind a social or political movement. Identity also can be the goal of a social or political movement in terms of gaining acceptance or redefining traditional identities (Bernstein, 2005).

What Is Identity Politics?

What Is "Identity Politics" and How Is That Different from "Political Identity"?

The term identity politics refers to the “tendency for people of a particular religion, race, social background, etc., to form exclusive political alliances, moving away from traditional broad-based party politics” (Lexico, n.d.). 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'. 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 country.

One way to look at this is to think of the difference between pluralism and hyperpluralism. A pluralist society is a society with many identity groups, with different backgrounds, religions and traditions, but where an overarching identity exists that can include everyone living within the country. A society that is hyperpluralist has not just many groups, but groups whose priorities are so divergent as to make finding compromise and agreement on shared values with others in society unachievable. Identity politics is complicated because people often identify with more than one group. One example is with the case study country in this chapter, Israel. The creation of the state of Israel was done specifically to provide a homeland for the Jewish people after WWII. As such, to identify as Israeli for most people is to identify also as Jewish.Therefore, those who live in Israel but are not Jewish fall into a different group with a different set of allegiances. This division creates a sense of exclusion and separation, making political unity and agreement more difficult.

One of the ways to understand identity politics is to contrast it with earlier efforts to see 'colorblind' policies or as John Rawls described in his book A Theory of Justice, a 'veil of ignorance'. In this hypothetical system, people are asked to make policy decisions without knowing who would be affected. The argument is that people would create fair policies, without respect to class, race, ethnicity, religion, etc. Identity politics, however, focuses the lens on specific identities and their differences. As Cressida Heyes (2020) explains in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, members of specific constituencies “assert or reclaim ways of understanding their distinctiveness that challenge dominant characterizations, with the goal of greater self-determination".