The Dutiful Citizen: How Nationalism Shapes Moral Obligations to the State

Being a good citizen in a democracy is costly. Then why do many individuals still comply and participate, especially when coercion is weak? Conventional wisdom is that they do so out of contractual trust in the state. This book argues that many do so out of a sense of citizen duty rooted in their national identities. Special communities, such as the nation, can instill a sense of moral obligation to contribute to the group, even in the absence of incentives or sanctions. The book develops a theory about when this ethical pull of the nation supports or stymies citizen duty in democracies. It argues that nation-state linkage – how national identities are seen to be historically embedded vis-à-vis the democratic state – is a pivotal lever for politicization. The logic is tested across citizen duty toward three different roles of the democratic citizen – voting, paying taxes, and fighting for the state – through the paired comparisons of South Korea and Taiwan, East and West Germans, and large-N cross-national analyses. Through a mix of statistical modeling, experiments, and narrative analysis, the book challenges the dominant focus on what incentives “pull” citizens into participation. Instead, it sheds light on when and why group identities can “push” a moral obligation to do so from within. For all the emphasis on individualism in liberal democracies, the book shows empirically that in many cases, ethical ties to a national community are an important part of what makes democracies work.

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