Global Governance Watch^©

Features

Introduction

Throughout the West, populist political parties are challenging the status quo. In response, political parties on both the Left and the Right claim that the populist challenges, many of which look to national histories and cultures for inspiration, are a “threat to democracy.” The established parties warn against “ethnocentrism,” which they claim fosters racism, stereotyping, discrimination, or xenophobia. Most likely, unless a credible alternative is offered, these political debates will continue for years.

One credible alternative is “personalist nationalism.” In his classic 1871 book, Democratic Vistas, America’s Walt Whitman espoused a personalist nationalism. He focused on the quality of Being, according to a person’s “own central idea and purpose.” He proposed a “healthy average personalism . . . the object of which should be to raise and supply through the States a copious race of superb American men and women, cheerful, religious, ahead of any yet known.”[1] For Whitman, it is only in the national context that a person can realize his or her true self: “The literature, songs, and esthetics of a country are of importance principally because they furnish the materials and suggestions of personality for the women and men of that country, and enforce them in a thousand effective ways.”[2]

Similarly, in a 1980 speech to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, known as UNESCO, Pope John Paul II explained how culture is the specific way of man’s existing and being. “Man always lives according to a culture which is specifically his, and which, in its turn, creates among men a tie which is also specifically theirs, determining the inter-human and social character of human existence.”[3]

Pope John Paul II urged UNESCO delegates:

"[W]ith all the means at your disposal, watch over the fundamental sovereignty that every Nation possesses by virtue of its own culture. Cherish it like the apple of your eye for the future of the great human family. Protect it! Do not allow this fundamental sovereignty to become the prey of some political or economic interest. Do not allow it to become a victim of totalitarian and imperialistic systems or hegemonies."[4]

This pillar of Global Governance Watch, provides resources in four areas critical to the success of personalist nationalism: Law and Liberty, Law and Religion, Law and Sovereignty, and Law and Economics.

[1] Walt Whitman, Democratic Vistas (1871), in Specimen Days, Democratic Vistas, and Other Prose, R. Shafer, ed. (Doubleday-Doran, New York) (1935), 294-295

[2] Id., 292.

[3] John Paul II, “Address to UNESCO,” June 2, 1980, https://inters.org/John-Paul-II-UNESCO-Culture

[4] Id.

Law & Liberty

As President Ronald Reagan once declared, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” Thus, the underlying principles of liberty must be passed on, articulated, and defended accordingly by each generation. America’s current legal order is founded on the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be. This entails reordering priorities within the legal system to place a premium on individual liberty, traditional values, and the rule of law. It also requires restoring the recognition of the importance of these norms among lawyers, judges, law students and professors.

Documents

Resources

Commentary

Law & Liberty

The Danger of "Political" Librarians

March 31, 2025

Trump's executive order suggesting the closure of a handful of federal agencies, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services, has been met with accusations of tyranny, but The Federalist's Mark Hemingway offers a different narrative.
The Contemporary Relevance of Tocqueville

March 31, 2025

Will Ogilvie Bega de Seoane from The Foundation for Economic Education reflects on Alexis de Toqueville's observations on democracy, and how they are still relevant today.
Originalism Trends in 2024

March 20, 2025

Mike Rappaport, Director of the Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism, offers an overview of the growing influence of originalism on the Supreme Court in 2024.
Corporate Media's Complicity in the COVID Cover-up

March 20, 2025

Jordan Boyd of The Federalist criticizes The New York Times's attempt to minimize the role it played as a "willing accomplice in a corporate media-wise plot to run cover for bureaucrats' tyrannical takeover of...cities, states, and country."
The Legacy of William Ropke

March 17, 2025

The Express Tribune commends William Ropke's 1933 courageous 1933 lecture upholding liberalism in the face of rising fascism in the Third Reich, with warnings that are still applicable today.
The Erosion of Trust in Government

March 14, 2025

Elle Purnell of The Federalist considers the effects that COVID had on the government's ability to protect Americans, and exposes the "double standard" that resulted.
Ateneo Law and Liberty Circle Discusses "Democracy at a Crossroads"

March 11, 2025

In an event hosted by the Ateneo Law and Liberty Circle in Manila, Jim Kelly discusses two competing governance models - "supranational corporatism" and "personalist nationalism."

Total Records: 7

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