Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights (Oxford Political Theory)

291 Pages·1995·16.68 MB·English

by  Will Kymlicka

OXFORD POLITICAL THEORY
Oxford Political Theory presents the best new work in contemporary
political theory. It is intended to be broad in scope, including original
contributions to political philosophy, and also work in applied political
theory. The series will contain works of outstanding quality with no restric­
tion as to approach or subject matter.
OTHER TITLES IN THIS SERIES
Justice as Impartiality
Brian Barry
Real Freedom for All: What (if Anything) Can Justify Capitalism?
Philippe Van Parijs
Justificatory Liberalism: An Essay on Metaphysics and
Political Theory
Gerald Gaus
The Politics of Presence
Anne Phillips
On Nationality
David Miller
M U L T I C U L T U R AL
C I T I Z E N S H IP
A LIBERAL THEORY OF
MINORITY RIGHTS
WILL KYMLICKA
CLARENDON PRESS • OXFORD
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6DP
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide in
Oxford New York
Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai
Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi
• Sao Paulo Shanghai Tokyo Toronto
Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
© Will Kymlicka 1995
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First published 1995
First issued in paperback 1996
Reprinted in paperback 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate
reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction
outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department,
Oxford University Press, at the address above.
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Kymlicka, Will.
Multicultural citizenship : a liberal theory of minority right /
Will Kiymlicka.
(Oxford political theory)
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Minorities—Civil rights. 2. Ethnic groups—Civil rights.
3. Liberalism. 4. Multiculturalism.
I. Title. II. Series.
JF1061.K96 1995 323.1—dc20 95-5110
ISBN 0-19-827949-3
ISBN 0-19-829091-8 (pbk.)
9 10 8
Printed in Great Britain
on acid-free paper by
Biddies Ltd
www. biddies, co. uk
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
MY greatest debt, as always, is to Susan Donaldson. Virtually every­
thing I write is first read by Sue, and every idea in this book has been
shaped by our discussions. When Novalis said 'It is certain any con­
viction gains infinitely the moment another soul will believe in it,'
he could have been talking about my reliance on Sue's advice and
opinions.
Over the last few years, as this book has taken shape, I have been
moving back and forth between academic and government employ­
ment, both of which I enjoy in small doses. My ability to maintain this
peripatetic lifestyle has depended on the support of a wide range
of people and institutions, including Peter Heap and Leslie Seidle
at the Institute for Research on Public Policy, Greg Gauld at
Multiculturalism and Citizenship Canada, Barry Hoffmaster at the
Westminster Institute for Ethics, Judith Nolte at the Royal
Commission on New Reproductive Technologies, John Leyden at
Carleton University, and Hilliard Aronovitch at the University of
Ottawa. I am grateful to each for the interesting work they have sent
my way, and for sparing me from the work I wished to avoid. I would
also like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada for funding.
My affiliation with the University of Ottawa has been loose, but
none the less very rewarding. As a bilingual university with a mandate
to serve both . the anglophone and francophone communities in
Canada, it is ideally suited for research on minority rights. I would
like to thank Wayne Norman and Donald Lenihan, my colleagues in
the philosophy department, for many hours of discussion on these
topics. I owe a special debt to Wayne, who has provided thorough
comments on this book. Chapter 9 is based on some work we co-
authored. I also learned a great deal from the students in a graduate
seminar I taught at the University in the spring of 1994, who cheer­
fully pointed out many problems with an earlier draft of this book.
I would also like to thank Brian Anderson, Lise Charlebois, and
Patricia Ivan for excellent research assistance; Beverley Slopen,
Dominic Byatt, and Tim Barton for smoothing the publishing process;
and many, many friends and colleagues for their comments, discus­
sions, and papers, including Roberto Alejandro, Michael Asch, Judith
Baker, Daniel Bell, Allen Buchanan, Alan Cairns, Joseph Carens,
vi Acknowledgements
G. A. Cohen, Raphael Cohen-Almagor, David Dyzenhaus, Avigail
Eisenberg, Leslie Green, Amy Gutmann, Moshe Halbertal, Robert
Howse, Tom Hurka, Jane Jenson, Dave Knott, Chandran Kukathas,
Guy Laforest, Brian Langille, Jacob Levy, Dominique Leydet,
Michael McDonald, Stephen Macedo, Patrick Macklem, Colin
Macleod, Andrew Mason, David Miller, Tariq Modood, Margaret
Moore, Glyn Morgan, James Nickel, Susan Moller Okin, Michael
Oliver, Tom Palmer, Bhikhu Parekh, Filimon Peonidis, Anne Phillips,
Robert Post, Kurt Priensberg, Maurice Rickard, Arthur Ripstein,
John Russell, Alan Ryan, Sibyl Schwarzenbach, Michel Seymour,
Michael Smith, Andrew Stark, John Tomasi, Mark Tunick, Mary Ellen
Turpel, Jeremy Waldron, Peter G. White, Melissa Williams, and Iris
Marion Young.
I would like to give special thanks to my parents. They have always
supported my work, and have taken a particular interest in this pro­
ject, which touches closely on their own lives.
Finally, I would like to thank Codie and Luke. Like most dogs, they
are baffled, and sometimes exasperated, by the amount of time
humans spend poring over the printed word. But they kept me com­
pany on some long nights, and I am grateful for that.
Many of the arguments in this book have been worked out in a series
of papers I have written over the last few years, although most have
been extensively rewritten: 'Three Forms of Group-Differentiated
Citizenship in Canada', in Seyla Benhabib (ed.), Democracy and
Difference: Changing Boundaries of the Political (Princeton
University Press, forthcoming) (Chapter 2); 'Individual and
Community Rights', in Judith Baker (ed.), Group Rights (University
of Toronto Press, 1994) (Chapter 3); 'Liberalism and the Politicization
of Ethnicity', Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, 4/2 (1991)
(Chapter 4); 'Dworkin on Freedom and Culture', in J. Burley (ed.),
Reading Dworkin (Basil Blackwell, forthcoming) (Chapter 5);
'Group Representation in Canadian Polities', in L. Seidle (ed.), Equity
and Community: The Charter, Interest Advocacy, and Representation
(Institute for Research on Public Policy, 1993) (Chapter 7); 'Two
Models of Pluralism and Tolerance', Analyse und Kritik, 14/1 (1992)
and 'The Rights of Minority Cultures: Reply to Kukathas', Political
Theory, 20/1 (1992) (Chapter 8); Recent Work in Citizenship Theory
(Department of Multiculturalism and Citizenship, Government of
Canada, 1992), and 'Return of the Citizen', Ethics, 104/2 (1994) (with
W. J. Norman) (Chapter 9).
Acknowledgements vii
A Note on the Jacket Illustration
The jacket illustration is a painting called 'The Peaceable Kingdom', by
Edward Hicks, painted around 1834. It illustrates the signing of a treaty in
1682 between a group of Quakers and three local Indian tribes, the Leeni
Lenape, Susquehannock, and Shawnee, allowing for the establishment of a
Quaker community in Pennsylvania. (The Quakers were one of the few
groups to honour their treaty commitments.) Hicks, a devout Quaker,
viewed this treaty as the beginning of the 'peaceable kingdom' prophesied in
Isaiah, in which love will replace hostility and competition both amongst
humans and in the natural world (e.g. 'the lion will lie down with the lamb').
I chose this painting because it portrays and celebrates a form of multicul-
turalism that we often ignore. Most discussions of 'multiculturalism', at least
in North America, focus on the case of immigrants, and the accommodation
of their ethnic and racial differences within the larger society. Less attention
has been paid to the situation of indigenous peoples and other non­
immigrant 'national minorities' whose homeland has been incorporated into
the boundaries of a larger state, through conquest, colonization, or federa­
tion. Treaties are a common means of regulating the interaction between
dominant groups and national minorities. They reflect the idea that the two
nations in a multination state treat each other as equals, and respect each
other's right to speak for and govern themselves. Many people view such
treaties as outmoded or irrelevant, and they have generally been ignored or
violated by the majority whenever they were inconvenient. However, I think
the underlying ideal is worth studying, and celebrating, and may indeed be
vital to creating a more peaceable kingdom in the modern world.

CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION 1
2. THE POLITICS OF MULTICULTURAL ISM 10
3. INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND COLLECTIVE
RIGHTS 34
4. RETHINKING THE LIBERAL TRADITION 49
5. FREEDOM AND CULTURE 75
6. JUSTICE AND MINORITY RIGHTS 107
7. ENSURING A VOICE FOR MINORITIES 131
8. TOLERATION AND ITS LIMITS 152
9. THE TIES THAT BIND 173
10. CONCLUSION 193
Notes 196
Bibliography 240
Index 265