diff --git a/Lib/locale.py b/Lib/locale.py
index 0f60dcc..7ddfdb7 100644
--- a/Lib/locale.py
+++ b/Lib/locale.py
@@ -18,6 +18,14 @@
 import operator
 import functools
 
+try:
+    _unicode = unicode
+except NameError:
+    # If Python is built without Unicode support, the unicode type
+    # will not exist. Fake one.
+    class _unicode(object):
+        pass
+
 # Try importing the _locale module.
 #
 # If this fails, fall back on a basic 'C' locale emulation.
@@ -353,7 +361,7 @@
 
     """
     # Normalize the locale name and extract the encoding
-    if isinstance(localename, unicode):
+    if isinstance(localename, _unicode):
         localename = localename.encode('ascii')
     fullname = localename.translate(_ascii_lower_map)
     if ':' in fullname: