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 influence our sense of self [our identity].
What Are the Components of Political Identity?
Political identity is how a person or group of people 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, including our ethnicity, religion, gender, class, ideology, nationality, age, and generation.
Why Is Political Identity Important in Studying Comparative Politics?
Understanding how individuals and groups see their own identity is critical to the analysis of the political culture and system of any country. For example, in the United States, people think of White evangelicals as affiliated with the Republican Party and persons of color to be more likely affiliated 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.
What Is Identity Politics?
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.). It can provide a sense of belonging and purpose for a group of people, while also leading to division and a sense of 'us' versus 'them' mentality. 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.
- 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 hyperpluralist society has many groups with divergent priorities making it difficult to compromise and agree on shared values with others in the society.
People often identify with more than one group. For example, the creation of the state of Israel was done specifically to provide a homeland for the Jewish people after World War II. 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.
In his book, A Theory of Justice, John Rawls described 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 for class, race, ethnicity, religion, etc. Identity politics, however, focus 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".
