ABSTRACT
’Group hatreds’ refers to situations where two or more groups of people, none of which is on the face of it objectively hateful, seem motivated by mutual hatred. Examples may be found among some of the Irish Protestants and Catholics, Hindus and Muslims in Southeast Asia, Bosnian Serbs, Croats, and Muslims, and Jewish and Arab antagonists in the Middle East. Sources of much pain and suffering, group hatreds also pose a severe threat to democracy. Group hatreds are marked by defiantly open and typically violent intolerance. Hence, they are inimical to pluralism, which nearly all democrats now see as an indispensable component of any modern democracy. 2 A major political-philosophical task, then, is to seek ways consistently with democratic practices, cultures, and institutions that group hatreds might effectively be confronted. This includes trying to head off hostilities (like those between Franco and Anglo communities in my own country) before they turn into full-blown hatreds.
