Federalism as Rejection of Nationalist Monisms

Abstract

The author’s thesis is the following: federalism, in Canada, allows the citizen that so desires to refuse being instrumentalized by the many prevailing contradictory nationalist projects and whose common denominator is their crushing effect on the complexity of his/her existence. In Part I, he shows how methodological nationalism helps cultivate a feeling of distrust by only giving a partial — in every sense of the word — outline of the Canadian State’s federal dynamics. In Part II, the author argues that for a certain number of citizens, particularly in Quebec and among Aboriginal communities, federalism can provide the basis of a political morality that might not be as weak as some would think. Such a federal perspective is based on an epistemology that, although it recognizes the indubitable socialization of individuals, does not deny them their agency, i.e. a certain reflexive autonomy. Such agency therefore allows individuals to manifest a sound distrust toward the nationalist projects they are being offered.

If in the minds of thinkers such as James Madison federalism promoted individual liberty by multiplying political communities, today, in an environment saturated by identity claims, federalism might operate as a key to unlock the cultural fetters threatening to shackle the individual. A federal perspective might thus invest a person’s opposition to wearing any kind of cockade whatsoever with dignity and, above all, legitimacy.

If this thesis is accepted, it becomes possible to understand the wish of certain citizens of Quebec to adhere to the Canadian federation, even to cherish it, despite their low level of trust toward their fellow English Canadians. Such a federal posture stems from their distrust of the nationalist projects carried by both the federal as well as the provincial political parties jockeying for their votes. Their distrust is not unilaterally directed towards the Other as depicted by the nationalist discourse, but also towards the Self as imagined and portrayed by this same discourse.