When the final whistle blew just before dawn, and England had beaten Mexico in that encounter now hailed as a World Cup classic, glasses were raised and strangers embraced in pubs across England that had been granted special permission to stay open. In living rooms and student flats too, millions of people experienced something increasingly rare in modern Britain: uncomplicated national joy.

For a few hours, the endless arguments over the national budget, the revolving door of British prime ministers and the country’s political malaise fell silent. England’s World Cup victory that night did not erase Britain’s divisions. But watching the team sing their anthem song, Wonderwall, to their cheering supporters reminded us of something every successful democracy depends upon: pride in a shared national story.

National pride everywhere is one of the preconditions for good government. It is a battery that powers collective action. All countries ask their citizens to pay taxes, support difficult reforms and make sacrifices for people they will never meet. Making such public policy becomes much easier when people believe they belong to the same national community, much as Britain did when........

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