Culture, Citizenship, and Community A Contextual Exploration of Justice as Evenhandedness

by Carens, Joseph H.

• ISBN13: 9780198297512
• ISBN10: 0198297513
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-05-11
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Winner of the Canadian Political Science Association C.B. MACPHERSON PRIZE 2002 for best book published in the field of political theory. This book contributes to contemporary debates about multiculturalism and democratic theory. It reflects upon the ways in which claims about culture and identity are actually advanced by immigrants, national minorities, aboriginals, and other groups in a number of different societies. Carens advocates a contextual approach to theory that explores the implications of theoretical views for actual cases, reflects on the normative principles embedded in practice, and takes account of the ways in which differences between societies matter. He argues that this sort of contextual approach will show why the conventional liberal understanding of justice as neutrality needs to be supplemented by a conception of justice as evenhandedness. He concludes that claims about culture and identity appear in many forms in politics. There is no master principle that enables us to determine when we should respect such claims and when we should deny them, although the idea of evenhandedness often points us in the right direction.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Contextual Political Theory, Comparative Perspectives, and Justice as Evenhandedness	1	(20)
Complex Justice, Cultural Difference, and Political Community	21	(31)
Liberalism and Culture	52	(36)
Distinguishing between Difference and Domination: Reflections on the Relation between Pluralism and Equality	88	(19)
Cultural Adaptation and the Integration of Immigrants: The Case of Quebec	107	(33)
Muslim Minorities in Contemporary Democracies: The Limitations of Liberal Toleration	140	(21)
Multiple Political Memberships, Overlapping National Identities, and the Dimensions of Citizenship	161	(16)
Citizenship and the Challenge of Aboriginal Self-Government: Is Deep Diversity Desirable?	177	(23)
Democracy and Respect for Difference: The Case of Fiji	200	(60)
Conclusion	260	(5)
References	265	(10)
Index	275