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Liberalism and Nation Building

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Liberalism and Nation Building LIBERALISM AND NATION-BUILDING........................................................................................... 2 CHAPTER 1 ........................................................................................................................................ 2 INTRODUCTION:.................................................................................................................................... 2 1. Aims of the Thesis........................................................................................................................ 2 2. Structure of the Thesis ................................................................................................................. 6 CHAPTER 2 ........................................................................................................................................ 8 LIBERAL EGALITARIANISM.................................................................................................................... 8 3. Rawls’ Liberal Egalitarianism ................................................................................................... 10 4. Dworkin’s Liberal Egalitarianism.............................................................................................. 17 5. Dworkin’s and Rawls’ Egalitarian Liberalism and State Neutrality ............................................ 21 CHAPTER 3 ...................................................................................................................................... 38 LIBERAL THEORY AND NATION-BUILDING ........................................................................................... 38 6. Identifying Conceptual Terms .................................................................................................... 38 7. Liberal Neutrality and the ‘Problematic’ Aspects of the Nation-building Process........................ 47 8. Two Arguments in Favour of a Liberal Nation-building- Kymlicka’s Theory Reassessed............. 48 9. Some Typical Arguments Against Liberal Nation-building.......................................................... 92 CHAPTER 4 .................................................................................................................................... 101 LIBERAL NATION-BUILDING.............................................................................................................. 101 10. Who are the Beneficiaries? What Kinds of Rights? ................................................................. 101 11. Issues on the Subject of the Implementation of the Theory- The Modern State and The Scope of Minority Rights: Costs and Benefits? ........................................................................................... 112 CHAPTER 5 .................................................................................................................................... 136 LIBERAL NATION-BUILDING AND MINORITIES: TYPES OF DEMANDS FOR CULTURAL RIGHTS............... 136 12. Demands for Minority Rights I- Exemptions from Laws that Penalize or Burden Cultural Practices..................................................................................................................................... 137 13. Demands for Minority Rights II- State Assistance for Minorities............................................. 151 14. Demands for Minority Rights III- External Rules Restricting ‘Non-Members’ Liberty in Order to Protect Members’ Culture ........................................................................................................... 154 14. Demands for Minority Rights IV- Internal Rules for Members’ Conduct that are Enforced by Ostracism and Excommunication................................................................................................. 155 16. Demands for Minority Rights V-Incorporation and Enforcement of Traditional or Religious Legal Codes within the Dominant Legal System..................................................................................... 167 17. Demands for Minority Rights VI- Special Representation of Minorities................................... 170 18. Demands for Minority Rights VII- Symbolic Recognition of Worth, Status, or Existence of Various groups Within the Larger State Community.................................................................................. 174 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................... 183 19. The Nation and Egalitarianism .............................................................................................. 183 WORKS CITED .................................................................................................................................. 200 1 Liberalism and Nation-building CHAPTER 1 Introduction: 1. Aims of the Thesis Does 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 2 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). 3 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
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