Posted: November 21st, 2023

The Issue of Collective Identity in Britain, Germany, Japan, and India Essay

The Issue of Collective Identity in Britain, Germany, Japan, and India

Introduction

Sociologically, the construct of theory is considered reluctant to respond to several challenges emanating from new historical agendas that converge around the confines of collective identity. Further, the concept and model of collective identity is considered and viewed as a base concept that defines identity, a phenomenon that is further rooted in the observance of interactions that ensue between a set and more actions and minimally requires that they are placed or instead situated as social objects.

In doing so, there is a need to impute or announce identities, detailing the rationale behind the contingent interaction between social entities, groups, and individuals in the avowal and reciprocal attribution of identities. From a political point of view, the notion of collective identity revolves around the efforts that are put in place with the objective of mobilizing identity groups, a move intended to influence political results that span from the distribution of state benefits to educational and economic benefits to the basis of political representation besides territorial claims.

Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and India, in relation to the issue of collective identities, share some commonalities and differences. One of the renowned commonalities is that these countries are considered consolidated democracies (Kesselman & Krieger, 2010).

Contrarily, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and India share distinctive gaps that distinguish them based on their aspirations and ideologies of democracy and its practice besides the actual results of the existing democracies. For instance, the issue of unequal legal treatment and police abuse of citizens classified as poor or from an ethnic or racial monitory remains common in nations that are often viewed and considered as high in their democratic rankings, informing the rationale behind this research study.

The Issue of Collective Identity in Britain, Germany, Japan, and India

Ideology

As established earlier, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and India are considered consolidated states. The consolidation of these democracies is attributed to the acceptance of the political actors to uphold the legitimacy of democracy. This factor limits other actors from acting outside the confines of a democratic institution either for self-interests or normative reasons.

The British coalition government traditionally continues to represent the royal classes and families that have been rocked by several improprieties, including infidelity and tax scandals over the past few years, an approach common in Germany that equally has four classes that political parties represent.

As opined in the views of Kesselman & Krieger (2010), the German political parties represent four main classes that characterize the currently existing German society. These classes primarily include the established, the exalted, the marginalized, and the fighters.

The established and the exalted are at the highest end of society, while the marginalized are those considered to live at the lowest end within the German political system. These populations are primarily exploited and often lack the required and necessary capital to sustain their businesses besides falling out of the structures of German society.

Further, as disparities grew, Japan as a consolidated state morphed into a different and new class-based system that political parties represent. As a capitalist society divided into several classes from the beginning, four classes currently exist, including the capitalist or shareholders and the managers of the high production ends, as well as the working classes that are hired.

This class element remains evident in India, considered to have the highest levels of social hierarchies hedged on feudalism as they are ordered from the highest to the very lowest. Typified as the caste, the classes in India are divided into several categories that the political parties serve, including the Shudras, Brahmins, Vaishyas, and Kshatriyas. Therefore, it is arguable that the element of class conflicts remains evident in the four consolidated states, establishing the fact that they embody an individualist ideology.

This commonality is shared in the fact that individuals belong to different groups that take care of them for loyalty (Kesselman & Krieger, 2010). To this effect, an individualist ideology in politics differs from a communal ideology in the sense that the former prospers on a philosophy that draws emphasis on the moral worth of a selected people while the latter is entitled to communities that resort to the formation of confederations.

Gender

Britain’s electoral and party system is revealed to have contributed to the establishment of the Parliament, considered to have been the remains of the bastion of white men; however, this is turning out as diverse. As established in this case, evidence reveals that the 2010 elections resulted in the production of the highest number of ethnic minorities in Britain, nearly doubling the established numbers in 2005.

Further, this was a set of the first Labor’s Muslim female MPs as well as the first African MP, while the conservatives saw the election of the first Asian female MP. It is equally notable that a record high percentage of women were equally elected in the 200 elections, 21%, up from the 19.8% recorded in 2005.

However, this increase in Britain is hardly a surge compared to the UK, which has the most significant number of women representation and is ranked the 73^rd. To this effect, it is evident that women are highly underrepresented in the British Parliament (Kesselman & Krieger, 2010).

Contrary to Britain, France is renowned for providing social services that enable women to work outside their homes. The French government’s spending on child care, family payments, and maternity benefits for women remains a phenomenon that has quadrupled over the past decades more than the other EU countries. 

Laws in France equally mandate gender equality within the work environment and outlaw the element of sexual harassment. However, gender inequality in employment remains a factor that persists as a portion of female administrators and managers are among the lowest in the industrialized economy.

Sakurai (2021) further establishes that women are politically marginalized in Germany, a phenomenon evident in the fact that they hold the fewest positions within the society. German women, unlike French women, lagged behind women from the other west European economies in representation within civil society and business.

However, in 2015, the evidence established that the German women’s populace quadrupled their representation in Bundestag from a merger of 8% in 1980 to 37% in 2013. As opposed to German, British, and Indian women, Japanese women are considered the most educated; however, gender gaps in this nation remain the largest with no improvement, a phenomenon that the nation shares with India (Katsourides, 2015).

In Asia, women primarily account for three-quarters of the region’s non-regular employees and workers, with their male counterparts paid close to 60% of what the women employees are paid. To this effect, it is assumable that the treatment of gender in the consolidated states and their representation in government still lags behind.

Race/Ethnicity

Ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom disproportionately suffer due to diminished opportunities within this region. Despite the inference to these populations as immigrants, a larger population of these individuals is native-born. Several measures have been undertaken to address the issue of immigration in the UK.

Evidence shows that close tone one-third of children considered to have been born either in England or Wales has a single foreign-born parent. On the other hand, Britain is considered one of the nations that immigrants characterize. In other words, the nation is currently positioned as one of the ethnically diverse Western economies; however, the nation still struggles with the challenge of marginalization and social inclusion of ethnic minority groups (Katsourides, 2015).

On the other hand, India remains one of the economies that continue to receive the most significant number of immigrants from Pakistan, besides the lack of a properly formulated immigration policy. India, therefore, needs to focus on differentiating between the flows and stocks of its increasing immigration population by minimizing the adverse effects through investment in human capital.

Contrary to Britain, Germany, and India, the evidence provides that Japan remains relative in the reception of immigrants into the nation compared to these nations. Japan’s efforts are primarily hedged on increasing the nation’s cultural diversity while revitalizing the society.

Immigration in Britain, Germany, and India continues to create conflicts within these countries that include unemployment, the lack of proper access to healthcare services due to constrained resources, poor housing systems, and insecurities (Fukuoka, 2012). Restricting immigration in these nations may equally pose an economical consequence that spans from the lack of cheap and semi-skilled labor and a basis to build on the cultural diversity of the nations.

Religion

Nearly 80 countries are renowned for favoring specific religions that are either government or officially endorsed, a phenomenon that has seen some religions accorded preferential treatment over others. UK’s official religion is primarily Christianity, an aspect that has seen several churches of different denominations, such as the Protestants, Catholics, Methodists, and Baptists, throughout the nation.

However, other religions slowly gaining access into the nation include Buddhism, Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism, and Judaism. Contrarily, the largest religion in Germany is Christianity, followed by a larger population of non-religious individuals. Islam and other religions hardly have time to penetrate this nation, given the government’s efforts due to the preferential treatment of this religion over the others (Faucher, 2014).

Further, religion in Japan remains one that is diverse in the sense that a larger population of the nation’s populations subscribes to Shintoism while others practice Buddhism and Christianity. This remains a unique element that Japan shares with India, given that a more significant percentage of the Japanese population subscribes to Buddhism.

Caste System

Castes remain some of the stratified systems that are segregated by ethnicity, race, religion, and economic status. Castes, as established in this case, have been notable in different societies globally and throughout the course of history; however, they are frequently assumed as traditional and specific to the nation of India. From a historical and political point of view, the caste system of India consists of four categories: the Kshatriyas (warriors), Brahmins (priests), Vaishyas (commerce), and the Shudras (workmen).

However, some people left the caste system and were classified as outcasts or untouchables. Unlike India’s caste issues, Japan’s caste system is revealed to have been formalized and designed from the division of labor and the association of people with different jobs.

This saw the nation of Japan stratify its caste system into four distinctive castes: farmers, warriors, artisans, and merchants (Collet & Dalton, 2017). However, the British coalition government traditionally continues to represent the royal classes and families that have been rocked by several improprieties, including infidelity and tax scandals over the past few years, a common approach in Germany that equally has four classes that political parties represent. At the same time, the Germans operate on a parliamentary government system.

Nationalism

Decolonization remains a phenomenon that resulted in the creation of a multiethnic Britain, a phenomenon that saw the state’s national identity become a complicated phenomenon. Issues regarding the fragmentation of sovereignty in the EU interplay of nationality and race, as well as the commingling of the histories of the other four nations, including Scotland, England, Ireland/Northern Ireland, and Wales, resulted in doubts in the creation of a British Identity.

Intra-UK attachments, ethnicity, globalization, and Europeanization further resulted in complications in UK’s national identity. As opposed to Britain, the French remain proud of their cultural heritage. However, in this era of globalization, the element of French identity and culture remains a factor that has significantly lost its distinctive meaning and edge (Chai, 2022). Currently, as opposed to Japan and India, pride remains exceptionalism. This phenomenon has seen the nation’s unique position replaced by the element of uncertainty regarding the value and the meaning of the nation’s Identify.

Conclusion

As established in this research, collective identity is considered and viewed as a base concept that defines identity, a phenomenon that is further rooted in the observance of interactions that ensue between a set and more actions and minimally requires that they are placed or rather situated as social objects.

As established earlier, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and India are consolidated states. The consolidation of these democracies is attributed to the acceptance of the political actors to uphold the legitimacy of democracy. This factor limits other actors from acting outside the confines of a democratic institution either for self-interests or normative reasons.

Therefore, it is assumable that the nations have some divisive characteristics that span from ideology issues related to gender, race/ethnicity, religion, and nationalism. From this perspective, the notion of collective identity revolves around the efforts that are put in place with the objective of mobilizing identity groups, a move intended to influence political results that span from the distribution of state benefits, educational and economic benefits to the basis of political representation besides territorial claims. Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and India share some commonalities and differences concerning the issue of collective identities.

References

Chai, P. (2022). An Introduction to the Challenges of Research Design in Comparative Politics. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4096469

Collet, C., & Dalton, R. (2017). Cultural change in the Asian Pacific. Asian Journal of Comparative Politics, 2(2), 109–111. https://doi.org/10.1177/2057891116680897

Faucher, F. (2014). New forms of political participation. Changing demands or changing opportunities to participate in political parties? Comparative European Politics, 13(4), 405–429. https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2013.31

Fukuoka, K. (2012). Book Review: Changing Politics in Japan. Comparative Political Studies, 45(5), 671–674. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414011434699

Katsourides, Y. (2015). Book Review: Comparative Politics: The Challenges of Intra-Party Democracy. Political Studies Review, 13(1), 111–111. https://doi.org/10.1111/1478-9302.12073_30

Kesselman M. & Krieger J. (2010). Introduction to comparative politics: political challenges and changing agendas (5th ed.). Wadsworth.

Sakurai, T. (2021). Introduction to Symposium on Left Authoritarianism: Comparative Politics and Comparative Political Theory. Comparative Political Theory, 1(2), 153–158. https://doi.org/10.1163/26669773-bja10015