The limits of tolerance: nation-state building and what it means for minority groups
The limits of tolerance: nation-state building and what it means for minority groups
When we think of the most egregious forms of intolerance directed against minority communities we tend to associate them with particularly despicable regimes, such as Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia, where racism, ideology or some special route to development is often held to blame, or where ultra-nationalism swamps positive tendencies towards democracy and a civil society. In this essay Levene proposes a partial corrective to this view with reference to the supposedly ‘good’ nation–state derived from the western liberal model. He considers the behaviour of two such states at their inception, Poland and Israel, with regard to two minorities, Jews and Arabs, with the Jews providing linkage between the two state trajectories. Levene charts their respective rejections of bi-national or multinational development, and suggests that the fact that both states today maintain a modicum of tolerance towards their residual Jewish and Arab minorities is more the result of (paradoxical) good luck than of conscious, benevolent design. In conclusion Levene proposes that the very nature of the modern nation–state militates against genuine pluralistic tolerance, a goal that requires a massive structural re-ordering of contemporary society away from global economies to a sustainability of human scale.
bi-nationalism, ethnic cleansing, ihud, israel, karl renner, lucien wolf, minority, minorities treaties, nationalism, nation–state, palestine, poland, tolerance, zionism
19-40
Levene, Mark
4ad83ded-d4b9-40eb-a795-b2382a9a296a
2000
Levene, Mark
4ad83ded-d4b9-40eb-a795-b2382a9a296a
Levene, Mark
(2000)
The limits of tolerance: nation-state building and what it means for minority groups.
Patterns of Prejudice, 34 (2), .
(doi:10.1080/00313220008559138).
Abstract
When we think of the most egregious forms of intolerance directed against minority communities we tend to associate them with particularly despicable regimes, such as Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia, where racism, ideology or some special route to development is often held to blame, or where ultra-nationalism swamps positive tendencies towards democracy and a civil society. In this essay Levene proposes a partial corrective to this view with reference to the supposedly ‘good’ nation–state derived from the western liberal model. He considers the behaviour of two such states at their inception, Poland and Israel, with regard to two minorities, Jews and Arabs, with the Jews providing linkage between the two state trajectories. Levene charts their respective rejections of bi-national or multinational development, and suggests that the fact that both states today maintain a modicum of tolerance towards their residual Jewish and Arab minorities is more the result of (paradoxical) good luck than of conscious, benevolent design. In conclusion Levene proposes that the very nature of the modern nation–state militates against genuine pluralistic tolerance, a goal that requires a massive structural re-ordering of contemporary society away from global economies to a sustainability of human scale.
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Published date: 2000
Additional Information:
Reprinted in Tony Kushner and Nadia Valman (eds.), Philosemitism, Antisemitism and 'the Jews': Perspectives from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2004), 69-91
Keywords:
bi-nationalism, ethnic cleansing, ihud, israel, karl renner, lucien wolf, minority, minorities treaties, nationalism, nation–state, palestine, poland, tolerance, zionism
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Local EPrints ID: 397054
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/397054
ISSN: 0031-322X
PURE UUID: 89ef804c-90d1-4ef7-bf8d-a21d5ef35761
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Date deposited: 20 Jul 2016 16:09
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 01:05
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