ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes all of cultural theories to shed light on the question of why people's trust and engagement might be reduced in ethnically diverse contexts and what can be done about it. Some economists claim that ethnic diversity is one of the reasons for stagnation and corruption in the developing world, and that it explains why the United States (US) does not have a European-style welfare state. For many social scientists, these concerns may sound like the reissue of a classical debate: for more than a century, scholars from many disciplines in the social sciences have studied the relations between various forms of socio-cultural heterogeneity and social cohesion. Classical political thought on liberalism, by scholars such as John Stuart Mill, developed in response to growing religious heterogeneity after the Reformation.
