On Thursday 7th February, Dr John Hutchinson spoke to 40 people at the Political Society on the title of 'Is nationalism a threat to liberal democracy?'. As a professor of nationalism at the LSE, he spoke on the origins of this as a political force in the mid 19th century, which sought to espouse the liberal values of independence and progressive values. Because nationalism doesn't specify how the state should organise itself either economically or socially, it left itself as an ideology to be captured by more extreme movements in the 20th century. Speaking on the trend of recent political events, Dr Hutchinson concluded that nationalism isn't necessarily a threat to liberal democracy, if moderates can reclaim national identity, but rather the post-1990 hegemony of liberalism is the direct cause of extreme nationalism we see today.
Ali Soufraki
