The Ideological Roots of Right-Wing Ethnoregionalism and the Civic Republican Critique

The rise of regional identities in Europe is a process largely welcomed by liberals and especially applauded by radical democratic and postcolonial theorists. Yet this trend towards post-nation-state identity is not only attractive to democratic and postcolonial theories, but is also an integral part of current neo-fascist ideologies. This article examines the intellectual origins of right-wing ethnoregionalism and the idea of ‘exclusionist multiculturalism” through the works of Pierre Drieu La Rochelle and Alain de Benoist. It also compares the idea of exclusionist ‘regional’ multiculturalism with liberal multiculturalism and defends a democratic, civic republicanism as an alternative to both.