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CHAPTER 1Introduction:1. Aims of the ThesisDoes not the sun shine equally for the whole world? Do we not all equally breathe the air? Do you not feel shame at authorizing only three languages and condemning other people to blindness and deafness? Tell me, do you think that God is helpless and cannot bestow equality, or that he is envious and will not give it?" Constantine the Philosopher (Cyril), 9th Century A.D (Fishman 1968: 589) The last decade of the 20th century has witnessed a renewed interest in the subject of the rights of national minorities among political theorists and legal experts. The resurgence of ethnic conflicts throughout a number of countries of the former Eastern block at the end of the bipolar world era, the growing importance of the politics of identity and recognition in some of the most developed states, and the reassessment of the strength of local cultures and languages against globalization, have all contributed to the current prominence of the issue of national minority rights in various academic disciplines, starting from political science, legal theory, and international relations, to sociology, anthropology, and nationalism studies. How should we respond to cultural and ethnic differences in multiethnic states and to the different kinds of conflicting demands that emerge from them? Different ideologies offer different answers to this question. Ideological constructs such as ethnonationalism, fascism, and racism offer ugly and inhumane solutions. What about liberal theory’s approach to the issue? This thesis aims to tackle the theoretical question of whether liberal egalitarian political theory can explain and justify minority cultural rights, and, if so, to demarcate the scope of minority benefits given as rights. I am interested in exploring whether a liberal state can defend its nation-building program by neglecting demands by minority members for their own nation-building. Is the process of nation-building liberal if it is connected to ‘minority nation-destroying’? Would a contemporary state that conducts such a course of action be following the creed of liberalism? Correspondingly, could we call such a state liberal? In response to these question it is often mentioned that the commitment of liberal egalitarianism to liberty, state neutrality, individualism and the universality of human rights, and the equitable distribution of life chances prevents it from recognizing the durability and strength of the bonds of nationality, language, culture, religion, and custom. Many commentators have argued that liberalism should only treat these issues as backward, irrational or even pathological intrusions in civic life. With this thesis, I intend to contribute to a burgeoning debate among contemporary political theorists concerning what has been labelled as identity politics and/or multiculturalism. My thesis will do so by providing a theoretical discussion interrelated to concrete cases taken from around the world. The method of my inquiry therefore, will be to analyse the liberal egalitarian principles in abstract form and then relay them to actual problems, controversies, and political discussions. I will interpret liberal egalitarian theory within the context of a modern multicultural state and in relation to particular, real life demands or practices. This kind of approach to political theory offers three benefits: “it can clarify the meaning of abstract formulations, secondly, it can provide access to normative insights that may be obscured by theoretical accounts that remain at the level of general principle, thirdly, it can make us more conscious of the blinkers that constrain our theoretical visions when they are informed only by what is familiar” (Carens 2000:2). The novel point of the thesis is therefore not only that it seeks to understand what liberal egalitarian principles have to say about minority rights in multiethnic societies, but that it leaps directly into applying this creed to a variety of specific circumstances. Political theory helps us understand and criticize various features of modern society. A well thought of theory can easily bring into discussion moral considerations about local practices throughout the world. Liberal ideas of the egalitarian kind discussed here are considered to be well equipped for a generally applicable theory, and my aim is to show that this claim is correct by deliberating upon a number of examples taken from around the world. Moreover, the discussion of controversies about minority rights in Macedonia presents the reader with a fresh investigation about the confines of applied liberal egalitarian theory in the post- communist countries of Eastern Europe.[1] The thesis will not be all-embracing in the sense that will cover all relevant cases concerning minority rights disputes. Due to space considerations it is impossible for me to be inclusive and to discuss the implementation of liberal egalitarian theory in all possible cases. My thesis will contribute to an ongoing and extensive debate within the branch of political theory dealing with identity and minority rights, but it will not provide a definite and all-comprehensive account about this issues. The important point is that this thesis will discuss relevant examples, principles and institutions that are important to the application of liberal egalitarian theory in practice. In essence, the dissertation attempts to discuss whether liberal egalitarian theory can support state intervention on behalf of minority cultures. In other words, the thesis will seek to answer the predicament that bothers a number of political scientists and philosophers: whether liberalism, and liberal egalitarian theory in particular, has the conceptual means to justify granting rights to members of minority cultures, and if so, what the proper scope of these rights should be. I will dwell upon the question whether the liberal state’s concern for equality and freedom requires it to respect minority claims about culture and identity. The issues I want to address in the thesis then are related to a number of questions such as: how can liberal theory respond to specific claims made in the name of known ethnocultural minority groups in a given society? Which claims related to the culture and identity of minorities can and should be supported by a liberal egalitarian theory? To what degree is liberal theory required to provide citizens with the same cultural framework and cultural resources for their choices? In short, how can we properly organize our society so as to reflect its diverse ethno- cultural character? What function can the liberal egalitarian theory have in the organization of such society? The issues I will deal with here will not include the controversial question of the right to self- determination. My concern in the thesis is solely over minority demands that do not raise the question of the status of the state. In other words, hereby I will only discuss how questions related to the organization of multiethnic states, which concerns how matters as education, media, and culture are dealt with within liberal theory. The focal point of the thesis will be to answer if egalitarian liberal theory can productively accommodate the demands of different peoples in the aforementioned areas of life. The main argument of the dissertation is that a liberal egalitarian theory, with a commitment to equal respect for all citizens, should dedicate appropriate attention to claims for recognition and support in matters of culture and identity. Consequently, the basic premise will be that the liberal theory in the egalitarian version, as presented by John Rawls and Ronald Dworkin, can support minority rights and is therefore, well equipped to deal with problems of a multiethnic nature. Promoting culture through minority rights is a human interest that should be legitimately taken into account in public decision making. A nation-building process that is sensitive to demands by ethnocultural minorities follows from arguments about equality and the importance of national identity and cultural membership for the individuals of minority cultures. Although, regrettably, in the real world the implementation of the liberal theory does not solve these problems, since existing states do not fully apply the ideals of the liberal theory, it is important to understand that the failures of implementation do not show that the theory is deficient. 2. Structure of the ThesisThe thesis then will have the following structure: after the introduction, the second chapter will outline the basic tenets of liberal theory, as exposed by Rawls and Dworkin, and describe the liberal ideal of state neutrality. In the third chapter, I will discuss the relationship between liberal neutrality and the nation-building process. I will then examine the problematic aspects of nation-building in contemporary liberal democratic states described by various multiculturalist advocates. I employ the premises of egalitarian liberalism to make a case for a just nation-building process in the modern state that would not go against the liberal theory. Thereby I argue in favour of liberal nation-building that takes into consideration minority protection. In the subsequent chapters I ask two questions: who benefits from minority rights within a just nation-building process and what is the extent and the scope of individual rights which the liberal theory can support within a fair nation-building? In the next to last chapter, I deal with the specific demands for minority rights, taking examples from throughout the world. Here, I use the typology of minority rights claims developed by Jacob Levy. Finally, in the last chapter I will briefly recapitulate the main ideas of the dissertation. CHAPTER 2 ...CHAPTER 3 ...CHAPTER 4 ...CHAPTER 5 ...Conclusion ...Works Cited(If you are interested I will send it to you via email) 12/11/05 |
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