Choice, Loyalty, and the Melting Pot: Citizenship and National Identity in Jordan

摘要

Debates over the relationship between citizenship and national identity are political battles that define regimes and their citizens. Transjordanian nationalists, the dominant voices in this debate in Jordan, assert that national identity trumps legal citizenship. In contrast, Jordanian pluralists define the political community through shared citizenship in the state, regardless of national origin. Both nationalists and pluralists use the concepts of choice, loyalty, and the melting pot to put forth their versions of Jordanian citizenship and to contest the distribution of political and economic power that maintains the Jordanian regime.