Multiculturalism and Liberal Democracy

• Authors: Andrzej Szahaj

Abstracts

EN

The main goal of the article is to show the possible ways of thinking about the relation between multiculturalism and liberal democracy. Author of the article tries to present some troubles with reconciliation of such political culture and elements of multicultural ideology which supports rights of member of foreign (nonwestern) communities to manifest their cultural convictions freely. In his opinion that would be a little bit naïve to think that all elements of political culture connected with liberal democracy can be accepted by members of the communities in questions. That is why he articulates the thesis that some conflicts between them and people faithful to the ideas of liberal democracy are inevitable and that it cannot be found possible solution of these conflicts which can be gladly accepted by all sides. Someone will have to give up some parts of cultural heritage of a given community if we are supposed to live in peace together. Although the author of the article believes that this resignation should not be limited to only one side of the potential conflict he argues that a political culture of liberal democracy is so precious that its defenders should not abandon it for the sake of ideas of multicultural society even if this brings about some pain on the side of their interlocutors.

Keywords

EN

multiculturalism; democracy; citizenship; liberalism; culture; community

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek
• Journal: Kultura i Edukacja
• Year: 2016
• Issue: 2(112)
• Pages: 209-220

Dates

published

2016

Contributors

author

Andrzej Szahaj

References

• Glazer N. (1998). We Are All Multiculturalists Now, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
• Kymlicka W. (1991). Liberalism, Community and Culture, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Mouffe, Ch. (1996). Democracy, Power, and the „Political”, In: S. Benhabib (ed), Democracy and Difference. Contesting Boundaries of the Political, Princeton: Princeton University Press 1996, p. 247.
• Rawls J. (1996). Political Liberalism, New York: Columbia University Press.
• Rawls J. (2001). The Law of Peoples with „The idea of Public Reason Revisited”, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 1999 [In this paper I use quotations from Polish translation of his book: J. Rawls, Prawo ludów, Warszawa: Fundacja Aletheia 2001].
• Schwarzmantel J. (2003). Citizenship and Identity: Towards a New Republic, London: Routledge.
• Taylor Ch. (1992). Multiculturalism and „the Politics of Recognition”, In: A. Gutmann (eds), Multiculturalism and “the Politics of Recognition”, Princeton: Princeton University Press 1992.
• Young I.M. (1990). Justice and the Politics of Difference, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Identifiers

DOI

10.15804/kie.2016.02.15

Biblioteka Nauki

2010309