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LANGUAGE POLICY, IDENTITY POLITICS AND POLITICAL THEORY
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Ronald Schmidt, Sr.
Department of Political Science
California State University, Long Beach
## email not listed ##
This essay argues that the discipline of political theory has much to offer students of
language policy. The essay aims to demonstrate this assertion through both discursive argument
and example. I begin with a general discussion of the discipline of political theory and its
potential contributions to our understanding of language policy conflicts. This discussion is
followed by demonstrative examples drawing upon the literature of political theory to illuminate
what is at stake in two interrelated controversial issues regarding language policy: the issue of
identity politics and language policy, and the issue of realizing greater equality for language
minorities.
I. POLITICAL THEORY’S PERSPECTIVE.
Most scholars of the subject concur that political theory as a discipline traces its Western
intellectual roots to th
e Greek philosophers of the classical era, and especially to the writings of
Plato and Aristotle. The “political” half of the term derives from the polis, and these early
writers were agreed that human life is best lived in this form of community. Indeed, it is to
Aristotle that we owe the first clear articulation of the idea that human beings are “political”
animals, by which he meant that human “nature” is only realized fully through living active lives
as citizens in a polis (Aristotle 1984, Book I, Chapter 2). The “theory” half of the term, on the
other hand, derives from the Greek word theoria, whose meaning originally centered on
“seeing,” as in “a place for seeing,” or being a “spectator,” etc. Thus, political theorists are those
who seek to see political life in a particular way.
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This paper is a draft of an invited book chapter. Please do not cite or quote. The author, however, welcomes
comments and/or suggestions for improvement.
Convention