Nationalism and Global Justice: David Miller and His Critics

Previously published as a special issue of the Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy, this collection brings together some of the most influential political contemporary philosophers to present a critical review of David Miller’s co-national priority thesis and give a state-of-the-art overview of the prevailing positions on nationalism and global justice within political philosophy today.

The redistribution schemes of our democratic societies drastically prioritize the needs of co-nationals above those of other human beings. Is this common practice legitimate or is it a form of collective egoism? Answering this question brings us to the heart of two of the most significant debates in contemporary political philosophy: those on nationalism and global justice. Within contemporary political philosophy, Miller is one of the few political theorists who occupies a prominent place in both debates. His central argument is that national boundaries cannot be upheld at the cost of the basic rights of others, but that they do have ethical significance and therefore entitle us to prioritize the preferences of our co-nationals.

This volume will be of interest to students and scholars studying philosophy, politics, international relations and law.

Helder De Schutter is an Assistant Professor in Social and Political Philosophy at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. His research focuses on the historical and contemporary justifications of nationalism, language policy and federalism. Recent papers have appeared in The Journal of Political Philosophy, Inquiry, Journal of Applied Philosophy, Metaphilosophy and Language Problemsand Language Planning. With Ronald Tinnevelt, he is editing ’Global Democracy and Exclusion’ (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010).

Ronald Tinnevelt is Associate Professor of Legal Philosophy at the Faculty of Law of the Radboud University Nijmegen. He is co-editor of Between Cosmopolitan Ideals and State Sovereignty (2006), Does Truth Matter? (2008), and Global Democracy and Exclusion (2010). He was recently awarded a Vidi scholarship from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for a 5-year project on the relationship between moral and institutional cosmopolitanism.