Description
Book SynopsisThis book addresses the question of cultural pluralism and its implications for citizenship and national identity in post-war Britain. The author examines the role of underlying public philosophies reflected in laws, policies, and institutional arrangements. When a political community faces challenges of diversity, people explore new principles of social formation, that is, what kind of society they desire based on which methods of maintaining peace and cooperation. In other words, citizens of a political community try to forge a new social contract which is fair to social majorities as well as minorities. Such a contract includes rights and obligations on three levels: the range of state intervention, acceptable responsibility of society, and due liberty of the individual. This book explores Britain’s approach to responding to such challenges of diversity as devolution, European integration, and multiculturalism have deepened. The author interprets Britain’s principles under the name of deliberative multiculturalism, which consists of rational dialogue and mutual respect with firmly guaranteed political rights.
Table of ContentsContents: Locating Cultural Rights and Cultural Survival in the British Context – Civis Britannicus Sum: Republican Legacy in Post-War Britain – Revisiting New Right Citizenship Discourse in Thatcher’s Britain – Emergence of Deliberative Multiculturalism in New Labour’s Britain – Ethnic Violence and Ethnic Cooperation in British Local Society – The Evolution of Human Rights in Britain: European Challenges and Parliamentary Sovereignty – The End of Britain? Challenges from Devolution, European Integration, and Multiculturalism – The British Way of Multicultural Coexistence.
