ABSTRACT
Political pragmatism has become fashionable in Britain in the post-ideological/post-modern age of managerial politics. It is neither "laissez faire," nor should it be short-term populism. Pragmatism can be seen as the philosophy of principled consequentialism. A problem with multiculturalism is how such a demarcation can be established that separates the legitimate claims of separatist minorities from the proper exercise of the political authority and will of the majority represented by the state. The emphasis on preliminaries varies, and the order and spirit in which different elements of negotiation are approached can be different among cultures." The lack of trust and the intensity of the intolerance across a major cultural faultline are too great for negotiation to initially succeed. Any agreed demarcation/compromise between the conflicting rights of the mainstream and separatist ethnic groups in a nation-state must be firm, non-ambiguous, and not the basis for future creeping re-negotiation.
