IB Global Politics Identity Questionbank

(d) Evaluate the extent to which imposing a single national identity through coercive law deepens rather than resolves an identity crisis.

Stimulus

Adapted from The People Against the Nation: Populism and Political Identity by Rafael Duarte (2022), published in the Journal of Democracy Studies.

Populist leaders and constitutional democrats appeal to national belonging in incompatible ways. 'Populist nationalism' constructs a pure and virtuous 'true people', defined by faith, morality or ethnicity, and sets it against internal enemies: elites, minorities, judges and the press. National identity is fused with the leader and the movement, so that opposing them can be portrayed as betraying the nation itself.

'Civic patriotism' attaches loyalty to shared institutions and a constitution that belongs to everyone, including those who lose elections. It treats disagreement as normal and the opposition as legitimate, and it defines the nation broadly enough to include citizens who differ in belief and background. The danger of populist nationalism is that once the nation is defined as one moral community, anyone outside it can be treated as an enemy rather than a fellow citizen.

(a) Using at least two examples from the stimulus, contrast 'populist nationalism' with 'civic patriotism'.

(b) With explicit reference to a global political challenge from one of your researched case studies, explain how a populist leader has constructed a national identity that excludes political opponents.

(c) Based on your answer to part (b), recommend a course of action that could rebuild an inclusive civic identity and reduce polarisation.

(d) Evaluate the extent to which populist leaders manufacture a threatened national identity primarily to consolidate their own power. Base your response on one researched case study and integrate links to at least two HL extension topic areas.

Stimulus

Adapted from Belonging Without Papers: Citizenship and the Politics of Recognition by Nadia Okafor (2022), published in the Review of Comparative Nationhood.

Membership of a political community can be granted along two very different logics. Under 'ethnic nationalism', belonging is inherited: the nation is imagined as a community of shared ancestry, language and religion, and the state reserves full citizenship for those who fit that lineage. Groups outside the imagined bloodline are treated as permanent outsiders, however long they have lived within the territory.

By contrast, 'civic nationalism' defines the nation through shared institutions and a common commitment to the rules of the political community. Membership is open, in principle, to anyone who resides, participates and consents, regardless of origin. Yet even civic states quietly police belonging through language tests, loyalty oaths and documentation requirements, so that legal recognition and lived belonging rarely align perfectly.

(a) Using at least two examples from the stimulus, contrast 'ethnic nationalism' with 'civic nationalism' as described in the text.

(b) With explicit reference to a global political challenge from one of your researched case studies, explain how a state has used citizenship or nationality law to exclude a particular identity group.

(c) Based on your answer to part (b), recommend a reform that would strengthen the political recognition of the excluded group.

Stimulus

Text extract (adapted): "In August 2021 France passed a law to 'reinforce respect for the principles of the Republic', widely known as the anti-separatism law. It expanded the state's power to monitor mosques, associations and home schooling, framing a strict reading of secularism as a shield against radicalisation. Supporters argued the state was protecting shared national values after the murders at Charlie Hebdo, the Bataclan and, in 2020, of the teacher Samuel Paty. Critics replied that treating an entire religious minority as a security problem tells young French Muslims that their faith and their citizenship cannot coexist, and that suspicion, not belief, is what pushes a few towards the very extremism the law claims to prevent."

(a) Using the stimulus, identify three things it suggests about how France has responded to the presence of a religious minority.

(b) Analyse one political issue raised by the securitisation of a religious identity.

(c) Recommend a course of action that a government could take to protect public safety without alienating a religious minority, and consider its limitations.

(d) Evaluate the extent to which securitising a minority religious identity does more to create insecurity than to prevent it.

Stimulus

Adapted from One Nation, Two Tongues: Language and the Politics of Belonging by Emmanuel Nkongho (2021), published in the Review of African Governance.

States that contain more than one language community can manage that difference in opposing ways. 'Linguistic assimilation' promotes a single dominant language as the language of government, courts and schools, and expects minority-language speakers to adapt to it. Officials present this as national unity and efficiency, but for the minority it can mean losing access to justice and education in the tongue they actually speak.

'Linguistic federalism' instead builds protection for language communities into the structure of the state. Regions or communities gain guaranteed rights to run their own courts, schools and administration in their own language, and the constitution treats linguistic difference as something to be accommodated rather than dissolved. Where a government promises accommodation but governs through assimilation, a language grievance can harden quickly into a demand to leave the state altogether.

(a) Using at least two examples from the stimulus, contrast 'linguistic assimilation' with 'linguistic federalism'.

(b) With explicit reference to a global political challenge from one of your researched case studies, explain how a linguistic minority has mobilised against marginalisation by the state.

(c) Based on your answer to part (b), recommend a constitutional or political change that could accommodate the linguistic community while preserving the unity of the state.

(d) Evaluate the extent to which the denial of legal recognition, rather than economic grievance, is the primary driver of identity-based conflict. Base your response on one researched case study and integrate links to at least two HL extension topic areas.

(d) Evaluate the extent to which linguistic marginalisation, rather than economic neglect, is the primary driver of secessionist conflict. Base your response on one researched case study and integrate links to at least two HL extension topic areas.