Synopses & Reviews
Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-208) and index.
Synopsis
Building upon a theoretical framework of democratic exclusion as a tool of public policy, Rebecca Kook uses sources as diverse as postage stamps and public festivals to unravel the 'logic' of democratic identity. She makes the provocative argument that membership in democracies is inherently exclusionary, and that national exclusion is a tacit requirement for successfully democratic regimes. Moving from a discussion of the political and legal construction of national identity to the particular experiences of the African American minority in the United States and the Palestinian minority in Israel, Kook raises serious questions about the potential for real democracy in societies plagued by complex racial and ethnic divides and social, economic, and political inequality.
Synopsis
Kook makes the provocative argument that membership in democracies is inherently exclusionary, and that national exclusion is a tacit requirement for successfully democratic regimes.
Table of Contents
National identity and collective action -- Representing American national identity : the shifting status of African Americans -- National identity in Israel : being a Palestinian in a Jewish state -- The legal construction of membership in Israel -- Reinventing the invisible man : African Americans and the American symbolic indexes of identity -- Nationalizing religion : the Israeli national symbolic matrix -- Re-writing national identity - from Blacks to African Americans -- The crisis of Israeli collective national identity.