ABSTRACT
One of the most difficult challenges in the politics of multiculturalism is how to strike a principled balance between group-differentiated minority rights and individual human rights. What manner of authority are minorities entitled to exercise over their own members? Should that authority be subject to any principled limits? If so, which parties have a legitimate role to play in establishing and enforcing those limits? And which methods of enforcement are the most legitimate and effective? Even critics of multiculturalism disagree on how these questions should be answered—testimony to the complexity of the issues to be grappled with. In the first part of the chapter I take up the charge that multiculturalists have a strong tendency to prioritize minority rights over individual rights, and for this reason generally fail to provide sufficient safeguards for the interests and well-being of the most weak and vulnerable members of minority cultures. I begin by exploring some feminist criticisms of multiculturalism, focusing heavily on the work of Susan Okin, moving from there to an examination of Brian Barry's liberal universalist contribution to the debate. The second part of the chapter assesses the accuracy of these charges, with particular attention being devoted to the work of Chandran Kukathas and Will Kymlicka, and to the special case of national minorities.
