Education in Autocracies: Teaching Nationalism – and Fear

• In Event: The Global Politics of Education

Abstract

Drawn from a larger book project, my paper tries to pinpoint exactly what it is about nationalism that makes it so appealing to authoritarian leaders. How does nationalism, and the teaching of nationalism, help autocrats politically?

One might think it’s by helping them on the battlefield. A nationalist curriculum’s primary purpose is, in this view, to instill the fighting spirit in schoolchildren who may one day be called upon to defend their autocracy against foreign aggressors. In contrast, my paper suggests we should view nationalism as a diversionary tactic: it is a tool autocrats use to deflect attention from their political problems at home - giant problems - and for turning the public’s gaze outward. Rather than criticizing the leaders of their own countries, children learn to criticize the leaders of other countries. They practice this skill (which doesn’t come naturally) over and over. Their own nation’s leaders may be bad - they ARE bad - but other leaders are worse. Far worse. Those other leaders are monsters, the children’s teachers explain, and they’re out for blood.

These lessons aren’t just terrifying. What’s key is that they’re distracting. One’s nation is in imminent danger, after all. Sure, that nation may be ruled by a bunch of unelected egotistical jerks, or by a single jerk, a strongman. All of this is beside the point. Good patriots know better than to switch out their leaders in the middle of a crisis. By destabilizing their country’s politics, they’d be giving other countries, their mortal enemies, the upper hand. Good patriots stick with the devils they know.

If you’re one of those devils, if you are the strongman, cultivating nationalist sentiments is thus a smart political move. That is the gist of my argument. But in making the case - along the way - my paper also considers (1) how a nationalist education can supercharge an autocrat’s campaign to centralize authority, (2) why people educated in autocracies are particularly receptive to nationalist appeals, and (3) how a school curriculum that foregrounds the teaching of nationalism can work for democrats too - work politically, that is - in certain situations.

Author

• Lloyd Gruber, London School of Economics