Cultural Pluralism and Dilemmas of Justice

Cultural Pluralism and Dilemmas of Justice
Author: Monique Deveaux
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2018-10-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1501723758

How should democratic societies define justice for cultural minority groups, and how might such justice be secured? This book is a nuanced and judicious response to a critical issue in political theory—the challenge of according equal respect and recognition to minority groups and accommodating their claims for special cultural rights and arrangements.Monique Deveaux contends that liberal theorists fail to grant enough importance to identity and the content of cultural life in their attempts to conceive of political institutions for plural societies. She takes to task the spectrum of theories on pluralism, from weak and strong theories of tolerance through neutralist liberalism to comprehensive liberalism, and finally to arguments for deliberative politics that build on Jürgen Habermas's discourse ethics. The solution proposed here is "deliberative liberalism," which incorporates both critically reconceived principles of deliberative democracy and central liberal norms of consent and respect. Cultural conflicts in democratic societies include clashes involving Aboriginal peoples, ethnic and linguistic minorities, and recent immigrant groups in Europe, North America, and Australia. Drawing on examples from several countries, Deveaux concludes that genuine respect and recognition for cultural minorities requires full inclusion in existing institutions and the right to help shape the political culture of their own societies through democratic dialogue and deliberation.

Cultural Pluralism, Identity Politics, and the Law

Cultural Pluralism, Identity Politics, and the Law
Author: Austin Sarat
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2014-05-14
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780472023769

We are witnessing in the last decade of the twentieth century more frequent demands by racial and ethnic groups for recognition of their distinctive histories and traditions as well as opportunities to develop and maintain the institutional infrastructure necessary to preserve them. Where it once seemed that the ideal of American citizenship was found in the promise of integration and in the hope that none of us would be singled out for, let alone judged by, our race or ethnicity, today integration, often taken to mean a denial of identity and history for subordinated racial, gender, sexual or ethnic groups, is often rejected, and new terms of inclusion are sought. The essays in Cultural Pluralism, Identity Politics, and the Law ask us to examine carefully the relation of cultural struggle and material transformation and law's role in both. Written by scholars from a variety of disciplines and theoretical inclinations, the essays challenge orthodox understandings of the nature of identity politics and contemporary debates about separatism and assimilation. They ask us to think seriously about the ways law has been, and is, implicated in these debates. The essays address questions such as the challenges posed for notions of legal justice and procedural fairness by cultural pluralism and identity politics, the role played by law in structuring the terms on which recognition, accommodation, and inclusion are accorded to groups in the United States, and how much of accepted notions of law are defined by an ideal of integration and assimilation. The contributors are Elizabeth Clark, Lauren Berlant, Dorothy Roberts, Georg Lipsitz, and Kenneth Karst.

The Rising Tide of Cultural Pluralism

The Rising Tide of Cultural Pluralism
Author: Crawford Young
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 1993
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780299138844

Two decades after the publication of his prize-winning book, The Politics of Cultural Pluralism, Crawford Young and a distinguished panel of contributors assess the changing impact of cultural pluralism on political processes around the world, specifically in the former Soviet Union, China, United States, India, Ethiopia, and Guatemala. The result is an arresting look at the dissolution of the nation-state system as we have known it. Crawford Young opens with an overview of the dramatic rise in the political significance of cultural pluralism and of scholars' changing understanding of what drives and shapes ethnic identification. Mark Beissinger brilliantly explains the demise of the last great empire-state, the USSR, while Edward Friedman notes growing challenges to the apparent cultural homogeneity of China. Nader Entessar suggests intriguing contrasts in Azeri identity politics in Iran and the ex-USSR. Ronald Schmidt and Noel Kent explore the language and racial dimensions of the rising multicultural currents in the United States. Douglas Spitz shows the extent of the decline of the old secular vision of India of the independence generation; Alan LeBaron traces the recent emergence of an assertive Mayan identity among a submerged populace in Guatemala, long thought to be destined for Ladinoization. A case study of the diversity and uncertain future of Ethiopia dramatically emerges from four contrasting contributions: Tekle Woldemikael looks at the potential cultural tensions in Eritrea, Solomon Gashaw offers a central Ethiopian nationalist perspective, Herbert Lewis reflects the perspectives of a restless and disaffected periphery, and James Quirin provides an arresting explanation of the construction of identity amongst the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews). Virginia Sapiro steps back from specific regions, offering an original analysis of the interaction between cultural pluralism and gender.

The Future of the Nation-State

The Future of the Nation-State
Author: Sverker Gustavsson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2005-09-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134755198

The tension between culture, politics and economy has become one the dominant anxieties of modern society. On the one hand people endeavour to maintain and develop their cultural identity; on the other there are many forces for international integration. How to understand and explain this fundamental issue is illuminated in nine essays by eminent scholars.

Pluralism

Pluralism
Author: Maria Baghramian
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2000
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780415227148

The first volume to link pluralist themes in philosophy and politics. A range of essays advances recent debates on political pluralism which challenge or defend the association of liberalism and pluralism.

Rethinking Multiculturalism

Rethinking Multiculturalism
Author: Bhikhu C. Parekh
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2002
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780674009950

Bhikhu Parekh argues for a pluralist perspective on cultural diversity. Writing from both within the liberal tradition and outside of it as a critic, he challenges what he calls the "moral monism" of much of traditional moral philosophy, including contemporary liberalism--its tendency to assert that only one way of life or set of values is worthwhile and to dismiss the rest as misguided or false. He defends his pluralist perspective both at the level of theory and in subtle nuanced analyses of recent controversies. Thus, he offers careful and clear accounts of why cultural differences should be respected and publicly affirmed, why the separation of church and state cannot be used to justify the separation of religion and politics, and why the initial critique of Salman Rushdie (before a Fatwa threatened his life) deserved more serious attention than it received. Rejecting naturalism, which posits that humans have a relatively fixed nature and that culture is an incidental, and "culturalism," which posits that they are socially and culturally constructed with only a minimal set of features in common, he argues for a dialogic interplay between human commonalities and cultural differences. This will allow, Parekh argues, genuinely balanced and thoughtful compromises on even the most controversial cultural issues in the new multicultural world in which we live.

Reconstructing Political Pluralism

Reconstructing Political Pluralism
Author: Avigail I. Eisenberg
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 1995-08-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780791425626

This reappraisal of the pluralist tradition systematically explores accounts of political pluralism offered by James, Dewey, Figgis, Cole, Laski, Follett, and Dahl and shows how each variant contains a distinct account of the relation between group power, individual interest, and self-development. These historical accounts provide the resources with which Eisenberg reconstructs a democratic theory of political pluralism. At the center of political pluralism, she argues, is a pluralist approach to self-development that can address the key ambiguities of identity politics and provide a more effective means to balance the power relations between individuals and communities than can individualist or communitarian approaches.

The Politics of Language : Conflict, Identity, and Cultural Pluralism in Comparative Perspective

The Politics of Language : Conflict, Identity, and Cultural Pluralism in Comparative Perspective
Author: Carol L. Schmid Professor of Sociology Guilford Technical Community College
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2001-04-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0195350219

Important aspects of the history of language in the United States remain shrouded in myth and legend. The notion of "one nation, one language" is part of the idealized history of the United States, although in its short history it has probably been host to more bilingual people than any other country in the world. Language is more than a means of communication. It brings into play an entire range of experiences and attitudes toward life. Furthermore, language is a potent symbolic issue because it links power and political claims of ownership with psychological demands for group worth. How people belonging to different language and cultural communities live together in the same political community and how political and structural tensions arise to divide them along language lines, are questions addressed in The Politics of Language. This book analyzes the historical background and recent controversy over language in the United States and compares it to two official multilingual societies: Canada and Switzerland. It's accessibility as a survey of this topic makes it ideal for courses in linguistics, political science, and sociology.

To Be an American

To Be an American
Author: Bill Ong Hing
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2000
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0814736092

The impetus behind California's Proposition 187 clearly reflects the growing anti-immigrant sentiment in this country. Many Americans regard today's new immigrants as not truly American, as somehow less committed to the ideals on which the country was founded. In clear, precise terms, Bill Ong Hing considers immigration in the context of the global economy, a sluggish national economy, and the hard facts about downsizing. Importantly, he also confronts the emphatic claims of immigrant supporters that immigrants do assimilate, take jobs that native workers don't want, and contribute more to the tax coffers than they take out of the system. A major contribution of Hing's book is its emphasis on such often-overlooked issues as the competition between immigrants and African Americans, inter-group tension, and ethnic separatism, issues constantly brushed aside both by immigrant rights groups and the anti-immigrant right. Drawing on Hing's work as a lawyer deeply involved in the day-to-day life of his immigrant clients, To Be An American is a unique blend of substantive analysis, policy, and personal experience.