Ethnic Relations and Western Political Theory Cover Image

Etnički odnosi i zapadna politička teorija
Ethnic Relations and Western Political Theory

Author(s): Will Kymlicka
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Centar za multikulturalnost
Keywords: minority rights; the management of ethnic relations in a democracy; ethnocultural conflict; modernization and economic well-being; ethnocultural pluralism

Summary/Abstract: This paper is an attempt to outline some of the recent work by Western political theorists on minority rights, and to identify some of the ways in which it might be relevant to ECE countries. ECE countries can maybe learn something from the mistakes made by Western countries, and from hard lessons over the years about the management of ethnic relations in a democracy avoiding at least some of the problems which have plagued Western democracies in the past. Western democracies have shown that societies can learn to manage ethnocultural divisions in a peaceful way and in accordance with liberal democratic norms, although other liberals have argued the ethnocultural conflict was substitute for modernization and economic well-being. If nothing else is learned from Western experience with ethnocultural relations, ECE countries may at least be able to recognize the importance of tackling head on issues of ethnocultural pluralism.

  • Issue Year: 1999
  • Issue No: 0
  • Page Range: 17-63
  • Page Count: 47
  • Language: Serbian