Liberal political theorists are likely to regard talk about virtue and patriotism as a dangerous thing. There is a fine line, they would say, perhaps invoking the tyrannical lesson of Robespierre, between a republic of virtue and a reign of terror. And we should beware that a love of country, for all the good that it can motivate citizens to do, can easily morph into jingoistic fervour. For such critics, patriotism ‘typically involves a grave moral error and its source is typically a state of mental confusion’ (Kateb 2006, p. 3). It can be manipulated to fuel fanatical racism, to support dubious wars in foreign lands, and to justify government restrictions of individual liberties. The ethos of ‘my country, right or wrong’ is something a liberal polity should do its best to avoid. Of all people, it is argued, political theorists and philosophers should know better than to make the mistake of defending patriotism in theory, if not also promoting it in practice.

There is certainly cause for liberal concern. In Britain, for example, the language of patriotism features heavily in the platforms of far-right political groups such as the British National Party (BNP) and the English Defence League (EDL). BNP leader Nick Griffin describes his party as ‘a patriotic democratic alternative to the old parties that have wrecked our great country’ by relegating ‘native Britons’ to second-class citizenship. The EDL's mission statement commits its members to resisting government efforts ‘to deliberately undermine our culture and impose non-English cultures on the English people in their own land’. Many would say that such extreme sentiments have been encouraged by more mainstream expressions of patriotism. Whether it is the embrace of the phrase ‘British jobs for British workers’ by former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown, or current Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron's rejection of a ‘doctrine of state multiculturalism’ in favour of ‘muscular’ British liberalism, even moderate endorsements of patriotic values may have pernicious effects.