Cultural Diversity in the Development of the Demos: Cultural Identities and Their Role in Democratic Development
Cultural Diversity in the Development of the Demos: Cultural Identities and Their Role in Democratic Development

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, I investigate the role of culture in the construction of a democratic polity in order to identify the main characteristics of a model of multicultural democratic development. It offers a reflection on the main elements needed to understand and interpret the puzzle of cultural diversity and how these elements can offer applicable guidelines for policy-making and institutional design. In the first part, I contextualize the topic from a normative viewpoint, showing the relevance of cultural rights and cultural identity within human rights and human development documents. This reveals that the assessment of diversity in a democracy often creates an apparent dichotomy: the exclusion between specific needs due to cultural identities and the fundamental prerogatives of every individual or group. In the second part I explore this dichotomy through the lenses of the main theories on diversity and governance. Finally, in the last part I apply this framework of analysis to one particular model case: the conglomerate of indigenous peoples in South-East Mexico.

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