Book contents
- Majorities, Minorities, and the Future of Nationhood
- Majorities, Minorities, and the Future of Nationhood
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on the Cover
- 1 Majority–Minority Constellations
- 2 Are There Any Cultural Majority Rights?
- 3 Identity Not Culture
- 4 Nationhood, Multiculturalism, and the Ethics of Membership
- 5 Reconciling the Cultural Claims of Majorities and Minorities
- 6 Linking Minority Rights and Majority Attitudes
- 7 The Liberalism of Fear
- 8 Multiculturalism without Privileging Liberalism
- 9 Why Every Nation Should Nurture (a Thick and Inclusive) Nationalism
- 10 Populism and Cultural Majority Rights
- 11 Legitimate Populism and Liberal Overreach
- 12 The Causes of Populism and the Problem of Cultural Majority Rights
- Index
- References
4 - Nationhood, Multiculturalism, and the Ethics of Membership
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 November 2022
- Majorities, Minorities, and the Future of Nationhood
- Majorities, Minorities, and the Future of Nationhood
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on the Cover
- 1 Majority–Minority Constellations
- 2 Are There Any Cultural Majority Rights?
- 3 Identity Not Culture
- 4 Nationhood, Multiculturalism, and the Ethics of Membership
- 5 Reconciling the Cultural Claims of Majorities and Minorities
- 6 Linking Minority Rights and Majority Attitudes
- 7 The Liberalism of Fear
- 8 Multiculturalism without Privileging Liberalism
- 9 Why Every Nation Should Nurture (a Thick and Inclusive) Nationalism
- 10 Populism and Cultural Majority Rights
- 11 Legitimate Populism and Liberal Overreach
- 12 The Causes of Populism and the Problem of Cultural Majority Rights
- Index
- References
Summary
Liberal democracy arguably requires a sense of equal membership in a shared society, and in today’s world, this “shared society” is inextricably linked with ideas of nationhood. Defenders of majoritarian nationalism worry that this sense of membership in a shared national society is being eroded by multiculturalism, and argue that we must instead reaffirm the centrality of shared national identities, perhaps through “majority rights.” In this chapter, I argue that while the idea of a shared society is indeed important for liberal democracy, and that it will inevitably reflect ideas of nationhood, this is in fact an argument for strengthening, not weakening, multiculturalism and minority rights. The fact that membership claims are filtered through the lens of nationhood creates a series of formidable “membership penalties” for minorities. A robust commitment to multiculturalism and minority rights can be seen, not as a threat to the ideal of equal membership in a shared society, but as a remedy for membership penalties, and as a way of building a more inclusive ethics of membership.
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- Majorities, Minorities, and the Future of Nationhood , pp. 87 - 128Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022
References
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