The stability of patriotism in the face of variation in national laws

Abstract

Patriotism has been described by several authors as a rigid and stable construct. It is argued that this might lead to a deterministic conception of citizenship, in which citizens of a certain country are supposed to react in a predetermined way, as far as factors affecting attachment to the country are concerned. It is proposed that such a view conceals the fact that people'S relations to the country, even affective relations such as attachment, are political relations, and therefore, should be affected by the political activity of the State. This view received some support from an experimental study in which French citizens expressed their level of blind and constructive patriotism (Schatz & Staub, 1997) after having been exposed to a bogus national law that favored either immigrants (pro-outgroup only), nationals (pro-ingroup only), or both. Blind patriotism appeared stable across contexts, whereas constructive patriotism varied. Implications for the study of patriotism and citizenship are discussed.