Democracy: Liberalism, Territory and Nationalism

Abstract

This chapter examines in depth two issues that have been neglected by the studies of the liberal democratic theory, based on its assumption about the existence of a political community hosted by a nation state: i) the link between territory and democratic citizenries and ii) the association among state, nation and democracy. To this concern, firstly, the chapter analyzes the main ideas of political liberalism, the theoretical framework that connects liberalism to democratic systems and the theoretical contradictions of the associations between liberalism and nation states. Then it studies how states have defined democratic citizenries (demos) within their territories and, finally, the chapter analyzes the interdependence between democracy and nationalism, explaining why democratic regimes were developed and ultimately consolidated into culturally homogeneous territorial units.