Varieties of Multiculturalism and the Canonic Model. The Need for Conceptual Boundaries
Varieties of Multiculturalism and the Canonic Model. The Need for Conceptual Boundaries

Summary/Abstract: The article highlights the multiplicity of meanings assigned to the concept of “multiculturalism” by various researchers, politicians and journalists. The author argues for the resulting need to provide more coherence in the use of the term within the academic community. He proposes to that end a “canonic model” of multiculturalism, understood as the balance and fairness in inter-ethnic relations presupposing the acknowledgement of the importance of inclusion as well as of the need to privacy of ethno-cultural communities. The author defines “multiculturalist measures” as those normative actions which have the double function of ensuring both inclusion and group privacy, to be distinguished from inclusion-only or privacy-only measures. The article lists privacy-type measures like legal exemption, the establishment of private institutions, or the establishment of bodies of public law. Among measures for the inclusion of ethno-cultural communities, the article analyses efforts to ensure the conditions for inclusion, effective participation of national minorities in public life, anti-discrimination policy, empowerment of the persons belonging to ethnic, racial, national and linguistic or religious groups, and inclusion of the groups as collective entities. Based on these concepts, the article discusses the distinction between liberal and non-liberal multiculturalism.

• Details
• Contents