Transcript The Language of Democracy: Vernacular or Esperanto? A

The Language of
Democracy:
Vernacular or Esperanto?
Daniele Archibugi
Italian National Research Council
University of London Birkbeck
Charles V
What is the language of democracy?
Will Kymlicka’s answer
Politics in the Vernacular:
“democratic politics is politics in the vernacular. The average citizen only feels
comfortable debating political issues in their own tongue. As a general rule, it
is only elites who have fluency with more than one language, and who have
the continual opportunity to maintain and develop these language skills, and
who feel comfortable debating political issues in another tongue with
multilingual settings. Moreover, political communication has a large ritualistic
component, and these ritualised forms of communication are typically
language-specific. Even if one understands a foreign language in the technical
sense, without knowledge of the ritualistic elements one may be unable to
understand political debates. For these and other reasons, we can expect – as a
general rule – that the more political debate is conducted in the vernacular, the
more participatory it will be”
It does some damage to the notion of
a global public sphere
Can the public opinion be the “Queen of the
World”? (William Ladd, 1844)
It does some damage to the notion of
a global civil society
How can the single components interact
among each other?
Shall we go back to the ethnic or linguistic
composition of nations?
It does some damage to the proposal
of a cosmopolitan democracy
A global polity for everybody or just for the
elites?
Cosmopolitanism can be democratic?
Democracy can be cosmopolitan?
Aggregative or Deliberative
Democracy?
• A purely aggregative democracy may
perhaps work also without a proper
linguistic understanding
• But a strong and communicative democracy
cannot
• Neither the multiculturalists nor the
cosmopolitans support an aggregative
democracy
Kymlicka’s Remark: Is it a Description
of Reality or a Normative Principle?
• If it is a description of reality it is
trivial
• As a normative principle, it may lead
to a “democratic” ethnic cleansing
• Watch the historical propensity of
democratic communities to be
xenophobic
Dogville
by Lars von Trier
A normative principle: democratic
politics should be in Esperanto
The language for democratic politics
is not a mean to affirm identity
but to be
an instrument of communication
Democratic predisposition
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Equality of members
Participation
Non violent conflict resolution
Willingness to understand the arguments of
members of the same community of fate
Cosmopolitanism and
Multiculturalism:
How different are their visions?
• States are imagined communities
• States repress minority cultures
• Language diversity is a human value and it
should be preserved
• Democratic politics should involve the
largest amount of stakeholders
Single out the differences
between multiculturalism and
cosmopolitanism:
• How should political communities deal wity
problems that cut across different linguistic
communities safeguarding individual
liberties, maximizing political participation
and applying democratic procedures?
Four cases
• A state school in Pasadena, California
• The city of Bialystok (Russia at the time)
• Indian Democracy
• The European Parliament
A School in Pasadena, California
A school with an increasing number of
Spanish speaking children.
Lower proficiency of the Spanish speaking
children
Perceived lower level of efficiency of the
school. Even in Rugby, Hispanics are less
talented than Anglos
Growing tension among the two communities
Races in Pasadena:
Whites
53.4%
Latinos
33.4%
African-American,
14.4%
Asian
10.0%
American Indian
0.7%
Pacific Islander
0.1%
Other race
16.0%
32.3 % of
the
population
is foreign
born
Languages in Pasadena
English only is spoken by 55% of the
population over age five.
The Spanish language is spoken by
29.3% of the population over age five.
The proportion of those speaking a
language other than English at home is
45%;
22.2% do not speak English well.
From a Harvard Professor,
Department of Government
“There is only the American dream
created by an Anglo-Protestant Society.
Mexican Americans will share in that
dream and in that society only if they
dream in English”
MULTICULTARIST
COSMOPOLITAN
• Crucial role of language
for identity
• Separate the children into
two different sections,
each with the main
language in their
vernacular
• Rugby for Anglos, soccer
for Hispanics
• “The best language of
education for any child is
the best language for this
child” (Thomas Pogge)
• Education in English for
all, Spanish as second
language
• As joint sport, baseball
• Salsa for all parents
The city of Bialystock,
East Poland
The city of Bialystock,
East Poland
Four language communities in 1870s:
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Russian (4,000 peoples)
Polish (3,000 peoples)
German (5,000 peoples)
Yiddish (18,000 peoples)
Lejzer Ludwig Zamenhof
inventor of Esperanto
Esperanto as a simple
language (as the
newspeak)
Not meant to substitute
live languages, but to
allow communication
It could have solved a
small problem in
Bialystock, a great
problem in the world
Indian Parliament,
Many Official Languages
The Indian State
• 18 official languages
• Official language different in each state
• English (i.e. an artificial construction) has
become the lingua franca
• The majority language, hindi, was resisted
by many ethnic minority groups
• English is still less known but more
acceptable. Language of the èlites
European Parliament
20 European Languages
Should the languages be
reduced?
• Proposal to reduce the languages to two
• To increase the number of translators and
interpreters
• To go back to Latin as the lingua franca of
Europe
Mario Capanna and
Otto von Hapsburg
Vernacular or Esperanto?
Vernacular
• Increases the amount
of participants
• Direct understanding
within the community
• Role of elites is
reduced internally but
increases externally
Esperanto
• It allows the formation
of cross-border
alliances and parties
• It does not require
intermediaries
• Elites have an
advantage in
communication
Is there a solution?
• Bi-lingual education
• Identification of a language of
communication
• It will be at the expense of the demos for
the first years, but in perspective it will
allow a language for political
communication
Citizens of All World, Converse!