Review article

The Hegemony of Multiculturalism. A Comment on Will Kymlicka’s Theory of Nationalism

Thomas König ; Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

Abstract

The author discusses the theory of liberal nationalism of the prominent Canadian political theorist Will Kymlicka. According to Kymlicka, liberal nationalism is a necessary ingredient of developed liberal democracy, because social justice, deliberative democracy and individual freedom are most efficiently achieved within national political units. Kymlicka defines his theory as liberal culturalism, a doctrinal variety able to unify nationalism and multiculturalism. The author analyses main arguments on which Kymlicka’s theoretical claims are based and maintains that Kymlicka’s justification of nationalism has serious deficits: it uses a too abstract notion of liberal culturalism, neglects alternative theoretical approaches and counter-arguments, wrongly presupposes nationalism as functional prerequisite of democracy, welfare state and individual liberties. In conclusion, it is emphasised that Kymlicka’s theory can be described as morally and politically opportunist: it supports the contemporary hegemonic political practice, which only superficially claims to be multiculturalist, but it has little to offer to contemporary political philosophy.

Keywords

culture; nationalism; liberalism; cosmopolitanism; multiculturalism; democracy

Hrčak ID:

24319

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/24319

Publication date:

26.7.2002.

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