ABSTRACT
Modern theories of citizenship and democracy refl ect the practical dilemmas of negotiating power in contemporary democratic societies, not only their theoretical complexities. Theories of citizenship relate to the relations between citizens and the state and among citizens themselves, whereas theories of democracy address the connection between hidden and explicit forms of established social and political power and the intersection between systems of democratic representation and participation in political administration, public governance, and political parties. Theories of multiculturalism, on the other hand, especially those concerned with schooling, have emerged in the last twenty years to highlight the importance of multiple identities, narratives, voices, and conceptions of agency in education and culture, not only as a response to the constitution of subject-matter pedagogies or to the interaction between pedagogy and politics. Theories of multiculturalism, then, are intimately connected to the politics of culture and education.1 Thus they relate to the main analytical purpose of citizenship theory. Both attempt to identify the sense and sources of identity and competing forms of national, regional, ethnic, or religious identity, although multiculturalism has addressed the role of class, race, gender, and the state in the constitution of identities in ways that, by and large, mainstream theories of citizenship have not.2 This said, both have a grounding in practice that ties them to democratic theories, which are preoccupied with ways to promote solidarity beyond particular interests or specifi c forms of identity, not only with checks and balances, participation, and representation.
