Tribalism and the State: Michael Walzer Replies

Jim Rule’s passionate attack on “tribalism” raises more questions than I can possibly address in a brief response. Since I by no means disagree entirely with what he writes, I want to begin by clearing up one misunderstanding. I do not believe—and, of course, nowhere say—that “the tribe is an indispensable…facilitator of democracy.” My argument, which owes a great deal to the research of Karl Deutsch (see his Nationalism and Social Communication, 1953),...