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2 - Are There Any Cultural Majority Rights?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2022

By
Rainer Bauböck
Edited by
Liav Orgad  and
Ruud Koopmans
Liav Orgad
Affiliation:
European University Institute, Florence
Ruud Koopmans
Affiliation:
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung
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Summary

Multiculturalism has been turned upside down. Stated in the 1990s as a political theory and public policy of cultural minority rights, its language of cultural victimhood, oppression, and alienation has been hijacked by politicians speaking on behalf of national majorities. Some scholars have argued that liberal arguments for cultural group rights must apply to majorities as well as to minorities. I object that the notion of cultural majority rights is incoherent on empirical and conceptual grounds, and indefensible on normative grounds. The chapter suggests an alternative approach that relies on the core values of freedom, equality, and self-government. These values serve to justify cultural freedom rights for everybody, cultural rights for minorities, and powers and duties to establish a pluralistic public culture that includes all citizens. I claim that this framework covers all cultural rights that can be defended on grounds of liberal and democratic principles. There is no space left for special rights of cultural majorities.

Keywords

multiculturalismminority rightsmajority rightsmajority rulecultural freedomself-governmentcitizenship
Type
Chapter
Information
Majorities, Minorities, and the Future of Nationhood , pp. 35 - 61
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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