ABSTRACT
Coming to grips with the massive, and still expanding, body of literature that champions a political philosophy of multiculturalism is a somewhat daunting task for a single chapter. To make this task more manageable, a couple of different organizational strategies have been employed. First, rather than aiming for a comprehensive literature survey, the chapter focuses mainly on the ideas of some of the more influential multiculturalists, whose work is broadly representative of the diversity of perspectives and approaches in the field. I have tried to be as inclusive as possible in this respect, but inevitably this means that many valuable contributions to the debate have gone unmentioned for no reason other than a lack of space. Second, the discussion is organized around different types of arguments in favor of multiculturalism rather than proceeding on an author by author basis. There are three specific advantages of this strategy. First, it saves time and space by eliminating the need to consider the entire philosophical system of any particular author. Second, it provides greater scope for comparing and contrasting the orientations of different authors with respect to different arguments for multicultural accommodation. And third, it draws attention to the fact that most champions of multiculturalism deploy several of these arguments simultaneously, although often without carefully distinguishing them from one another. Seven different types of multicultural arguments are discussed: liberal culturalism, tolerationist multiculturalism, the value of cultural diversity, the politics of inclusion, deliberative multiculturalism, democratic multinationalism, and the politics of recognition. 1
