ABSTRACT
Salter has noted that today, ethnic heterogeneity poses a challenge to the welf~lrl' state. Howt'H'r, prior to World \\'ar II. ethnic di\'isions wert' eitlH'r less oln'ious than religious pn:judice or confused with it. Anti-Semitism was \'indent not only in Nazi Germany, but in the United States and other countries of western Europc. Anwrican Protestants were scarcdy It'ss outspoken in their hostility to Catholics than to Jews. \Vhaten'r tht' genetic and social \"Clriations \vithin these religious communities and they could generate contiicts at another le\'d the dominant society's hostility to religious out-groups was especially typical among those who were opposcd to egalitarian \\Tlf~m' policies.
