Multicultural Citizenship: A Critique

Abstract

This article discusses the theory and practice of multicultural citizenship in liberal states. Regarding theory, I point to the shortcomings of both 'radical' and 'liberal' approaches to justify minority rights. Regarding practice, the state-centered notion of multicultural citizenship deflects from the decentered accommodation of multicultural minority claims in functionnally differentiated societies. It also runs counter to a trend toward de-ethnicization in liberal states, in which the cultural impositions of the majority on minority groups are growing thin, thus removing the case for minority rights.