| Equal Recognition Subjects: POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Cultural Policy.; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Minority Studies.; PHILOSOPHY / Political.; POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory.; Minorities; Conflicting claims about culture are a familiar refrain of political life in the contemporary world. On one side, majorities seek to fashion the state in their own image, while on the other, cultural minorities press for greater recognition and accommodation. Theories of liberal democracy are at odds about the merits of these competing claims. Multicultural liberals hold that particular minority rights are a requirement of justice conceived of in a broadly liberal fashion. Critics, in turn, have questioned the motivations, coherence, and normative validity of such defenses of multiculturalism. In Equal Recognition , Alan Patten reasserts the case in favor of liberal multiculturalism by developing a new ethical defense of minority rights. Alan Patten is professor of politics at Princeton University. He is the author of Hegel's Idea of Freedom and the editor of the journal Philosophy & Public Affairs . |