The increasingly multicultural fabric of modern societies has given rise to many new issues and conflicts, as ethnic and national minorities demand recognition and support for their cultural identity. This book presents a new conception of the rights and status of minority cultures. It argues that certain sorts of rights for minority cultures are consistent with liberal democratic principles, and that standard liberal objections to recognizing such rights on the grounds of individual freedom, social justice, and national unity can be answered. However, no single formula can be applied to all groups, and the needs and aspirations of immigrants are very different from those of indigenous peoples and national minorities. The book analyses some of the issues, which, though central to an understanding of multicultural politics (such as language rights, group representation, land rights, federalism, and secession), have been surprisingly neglected in contemporary liberal theory.

No abstract

In much of the Western world, and particularly in Europe, there is a widespread perception of a wholesale 'retreat' from multiculturalism. Governments that once embraced a multicultural approach to diversity are said to be replacing it with a strong emphasis on civic integration. This assumption that new civic integration policies displace older multiculturalism policies (MCPs) has not properly been tested. Existing indices of immigrant integration policies (such as Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) or Civic Integration Policy Index (CIVIX)) have captured the rise of civic integration policies, but are not designed to measure the presence of MCPs. Drawing on an updated version of the Multiculturalism Policy Index introduced earlier, the article presents an index of the strength of multicultural policies for European countries and several traditional countries of immigration at three points in time (1980, 2000 and 2010). The results paint a different picture of contemporary experience in Europe. While a small number of countries, including most notably the Netherlands, have weakened established multicultural policies during the 2000s, such a shift is the exception. Most countries that adopted multicultural approaches in the later part of the twentieth century have maintained their programmes in the first decade of the new century, and a significant number of countries have added new ones. In much of Europe, multicultural policies are not in general retreat. As a result, the turn to civic integration is often being layered on top of existing multicultural programmes, leading to a blended approach to diversity. The article reflects on the compatibility of MCPs and civic integration, arguing that more liberal forms of civic integration can be combined with multiculturalism but that more illiberal or coercive forms are incompatible with a multicultural approach.

This book explores the rights and situations of ethnocultural groups in Western democracies. It presents essays that share three major themes: the dialectic of nation building and minority rights, the gap between theory and practice of liberal democracies; and the effectiveness of emerging forms of nation-building and minority rights in Western democracies. The book is divided into four parts. Part I presents debates on the rights of ethnocultural minorities. Part II discusses the requirements for ethnocultural justices in a liberal democracy. Part III examines liberals’ misconceptions about nationalism. Part IV focuses on how democratic citizenship can be sustained.

There has been much talk recently of a retreat from multiculturalism across western democracies. While people disagree about what comes after multiculturalism, there is a broad consensus that we are indeed in a post‐multicultural era. In this article I explore and critique this rise and fall narrative and suggest an alternative framework for thinking about the choices we face. Both the rise and fall of multiculturalism have been very uneven processes, depending on the nature of the issue and the country involved, and we need to understand these variations if we are to identify a more sustainable model for accommodating diversity. In particular, I argue that the master narrative (a) mischaracterises the nature of the experiments in multiculturalism that have been undertaken over the past 40 years, (b) exaggerates the extent to which they have been abandoned and (c) misidentifies the genuine difficulties and limitations they have encountered.